PHELIM MURNION,
Sir, - When Travellers have the nerve to camp in the heart of middle-class south Dublin there is a national outcry and a swift response from the legislature.
The vast majority of illegal Traveller sites are adjacent to the housing estates of the poor. These encampments are much older and more intrusive than the one on the Dodder that prompted the outcry. Do you think we will see the trespass law being used impartially across the State - in the sprawling housing estates of east Galway as well as the leafy suburbs of Templeogue?
I suggest that the answer to that question will be: one law for the rich, another for the poor. - Yours, etc.,
PHELIM MURNION,
Oranmore,
Co Galway.
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Sir, - The threat that Traveller organisations believe is posed by the new trespass legislation must be understood in the context of years of exclusion.
While the Government claims this legislation is aimed at large-scale trading encampments, the reality is that resident Travellers have been "moved on" by nearly every local authority in the State and they have no reason to believe that the proposed legislation will not worsen their regular experience of oppression.
Of course, we also know that those same local authorities have not provided accommodation and halting sites promised five years ago.
The issue of the large-scale encampments has been of great concern to residents and Traveller organisations alike; in the short term residents face financial loss and lose their social amenities and Traveller organisations recognise the long-term damage these conflicts cause to improving relations with the settled community.
Writing from the perspective of a member of the settled community working with immigrants, I feel we need to recognise that the recent large-scale voluntary and statutory involvement in confronting racism faced by immigrants has come very late for Travellers and their organisations.
It is to their credit that, instead of asking us where we were five or 10 years ago when they needed our support, Traveller organisations have supported pro-immigrant organisations and we have learnt so much from their experience.
Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN HENNESSY,
NASC (Irish Immigrant
Support Centre),
Sharman Crawford Street,
Cork.