JOSS LYNAM,
Sir, - I understand that the new Criminal Trespass Act will come into force only when the Minister makes an order.
This leaves a last chance to make this legislation reasonable. As matters stand, if the Minister decides to enforce the Act, Travellers will find themselves with nowhere to stop because, thanks to the pusillanimity of county councillors and TDs, there are far too few legal halting sites to accommodate them.
Let the Minister therefore enforce the Act in any local authority area only when that local authority has provided the halting sites already planned for its area but never constructed. Travellers are good and bad in the same proportions as the rest of humanity, and I am sure the majority of them would be happy to use good legal halting sites if these were available. - Yours, etc.,
JOSS LYNAM, Ardilea Estate, Dublin 14.