Sir, - Vincent Browne, (Opinion, June 21st) described a new temporary halting site (St Mary's) and neighbouring former halting site (St Christopher's) adjoining the M50 at Cappagh.
Those of us charged with responsibility for accommodating the Travelling Community welcome the opportunity to raise the debate on this complex issue. Mr Browne's net point about the priority of this issue in the national scheme of things is well made.
However, the characterisation of the newly refurbished St Mary's site as a "concrete dump" is seriously at odds with reality. Mr Browne says that he visited the site and describes "primitive tin lavatory facilities", "bare concrete walls and the crude iron washing and lavatory facilities". The article also implies that there were two taps and two lavatories for over 100 people.
Mr Browne is correct in stating that the old St Christopher's site opposite St Mary's is unfit for habitation. That is the reason Fingal County Council has closed the site and has now begun a complete upgrade to the standard that pertains at St Mary's, a standard that Mr Browne finds offensive.
In relation to St Mary's, he may not be aware that High Court proceedings were necessary to have that site vacated in order to proceed. Nor may he be aware that Fingal County Council had to disconnect the electricity supply to a section of the M50 motorway lights to safeguard the lives of camped persons who repeatedly chose to tap into the underground electricity mains serving those lights. He might not be aware that an ESB crew found the perimeter fence to St Christopher's to be live on approaching it following a complaint after another illegal connection was made.
The new St Mary's site is a temporary halting site, that is, a site where members of the travelling community may camp temporarily, but with individual sanitary and washing facilities. It comprises 30 bays. Each bay is for one family group and can house two caravans and a car or van on hard standing, i.e. concrete. Fire protection must be afforded between bays to prevent spread of flame between family groups. This requires concrete block walls to be erected. Each bay has a steel prefabricated service unit housing a toilet/shower room and a kitchen/utility room so that all the wet day-to-day services can be carried out there - washing, cooking, meal preparation, etc. This leaves the caravans for eating meals, sleeping and relaxation without the need for wet services.
Each steel unit can be removed by crane for refurbishment or replacement. The toilet, washbasin, shower and sink are made of stainless steel because, when they were provided in ceramic, they were continually broken, leaving people without services. These new units rarely suffer such problems.
St Mary's has a caretaker's office and store, three hard play areas and two landscaped play areas, skip areas for refuse, a community building and a space for a play-bus. The predominance of concrete may look oppressive but the requirements of cleanliness, fire safety and functionality where caravans are housed makes this necessary. We cannot provide normal turning circles on the service roads as these have been used as dumps.
Our permanent halting sites do not house the service units in steel but their equivalent in brick and block and compare in appearance with Dublin Corporation's Dunsink Lane, a permanent site, cited as visually acceptable by Mr Browne. Fingal County Council also has many schemes of group housing for the travelling community, some very successful, some not so successful.
In relation to consultation, the site and bay standards comply with those national standards developed by the Department of the Environment and Local Government within which Fingal County Council sites are illustrated examples of best practice. In relation to this site a widely published consultation meeting was organised, which only one family group attended. Their concerns were addressed after that meeting.
It may interest Mr Browne to note that the average cost to build one of our three-bedroom two-storey, terraced houses is now around £90,000. The cost of St Mary's Temporary halting site is about £55,000 per bay. Both figures exclude land costs.
The high cost of the halting site bay, with a fraction of the covered accommodation, can be explained by the 100 per cent site coverage in concrete, the larger plot area and the surrounding of that site on three sides with capped and rendered concrete block walls.
I hope that this response will be viewed as another contribution to a debate urgently requiring the attention given by Vincent Browne. It is to be hoped that all participants will appreciate that this is a complex matter which does not justify perfunctory examination. It should also be emphasised that we face enormous opposition from the settled community to every site on our programme, as does every other local authority.
Mr Browne would be welcome at any time to visit any or all of our sites or houses. In future, we would appreciate his giving us more time to explain our position than a telephone conversation out of the blue at 5 p.m. on this difficult and sensitive issue. Yours, etc.,
Eugene Quinn, Principal Officer, Housing Department, Fingal County Council, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.