Sir, - Mr Fintan Farrell (July 2nd) seems to have misunderstood some of what I had said in my letter.
I do hold the view that the travelling lifestyle is not to the benefit of travellers themselves, particularly where women and children are concerned. Local authorities, in facilitating the maintenance of such a lifestyle to the exclusion of other options, are helping to perpetuate this position of disadvantage.
However, it is not correct to suggest that I reject and deny travellers' rights to freely choose to live on halting sites, where that is their wish.
But if they do decide to exercise such a choice, I have suggested that it is not unreasonable to ask that such halting sites should be at locations that do not impact on settled residential areas, as would be a normal requirement of town planning. This should be accompanied by an active policy to encourage settlement in houses in settled areas.
Anything else is likely to be, I believe, an undue imposition on the settled community, even if many of those concerned are willing to accept such an imposition. The rights of travellers are no more absolute than anyone else's. - Yours, etc., Cllr Richard Greene,
Roebuck Road,
Dublin 14.