Sir, - I am writing to you to let people who read this paper know how angry and sad I feel about the new legislation the Government brought in without even consulting any of the Traveller organisations. As a Traveller woman myself, I feel the Government has betrayed the Travelling community. The then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr John O'Donoghue, said the new law was aimed at large-scale encampments, but in reality he has made it illegal to be a Traveller. There is a small minority of Travellers dumping rubbish, but the whole of the Travelling community has been punished.
The new legislation states that Travellers can be arrested for camping on both public and private property, their caravan or other property confiscated and disposed of, a €3,000 fine or a month's imprisonment imposed. I think this is a discriminatory attack on the Travelling community.
In 1998 the Traveller Accommodation Act was brought in and the Traveller Accommodation Task Force was set up. The Task Force recommended that 2,200 units of accommodation be built by the year 2000. By the year 2000 only 111 units had been built. There are more than 1,207 families living on the side of the road and 350 families in temporary halting sites. Where are Travellers going to go now that it is practically illegal to travel and the Government won't build sites for them? - Yours, etc.,
Mrs ELIZABETH McDONAGH, Finglas, Dublin 11.