On the day that Ireland defended its actions on the rights of children before UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. The barbaric Louth County Council took the opposite point of view and created unnecessary pain and suffering to Traveller Children.
The families were evicted from a Traveller local authority halting site that had been decommissioned by Louth County Council.
Pavee Point condemns these evictions as unnecessary and unwarranted. “This is one of coldest nights of the year and these people have no where to go,” said Martin Collins, Co Director of Pavee Point. “It is clear that Louth County Council has absolutely no concern for the health and safety of these families”
“Louth County Council has totally failed in its duty here. It has a policy of not providing Traveller Specific accommodation such as halting sites or group housing schemes,” said Martin Collins, “They are trying to force Travellers into social or private housing and this is in total breach of the 1998 Traveller Accommodation Act.”
“There is a demand for Traveller specific accommodation in Dundalk and these families are the living proof.
“These families have children at school in the town. Think how these children will be affected by this !
Pavee Point urges the Environment Minister to intervene to find a solution and make good undertakings that there would be no mass evictions of Traveller families as a result of fire safety audits on halting sites in the wake of the Carrickmines fire tragedy.
These evictions are confirming fears that Pavee Point had that local authorities would use the fire audits in a cynical way to evict Travellers. It is important at this stage that Travellers engaging with the Environment Dept in its safety audit can have trust in this process.
Minister Kelly put a Community Initiative in place at his Department to deal with any issues around fire safety on Traveller halting sites and it is through this Initiative that any fire safety issues on sites should be dealt with.
January 15, 2016 at 7:45 pm
To my blog readers:
Just imagine how you would feel if your local authority were to rescind the planning permission on the house that you had lived in for years. Then arrived at your home, along with the police, on a very cold day in January to evict you.
Can you imagine how these people must feel?
Additional Information:-
Today, Eleanor Kelly, solicitor for six of the evicted families said the youngest family member is eight days old.
Four of the families stayed in B&B accommodation this weekend, while two others stayed with their families and friends.
“The youngest is eight days old, there are 17 families in total,”
“The difficulty is that they were given 48 hours to find alternative accommodation.”
She said she had been in contact with Louth County Council about the site at Woodland Park last August, but did not hear back from the council until last week when the families were being delivered 48 hours’ notice to be evicted.
A fire officer visited the site in October and deemed it to be a hazard.
“If there’s work to be done, there’s work to be done.” But she added: “I was in contact with the council last August”
“The ideal situation is to allow them to go to a halting site but there’s no other halting site in Dundalk.”
“These are Dundalk families, they want to be in Dundalk, but I’m aware the halting site in Drogheda is full anyway.”
The council met with Traveller representatives on Saturday to agree on temporary accommodation for the 17 families involved.
FOR LATEST INFORMATION PLEASE READ COMMENT NUMBER 22
Links:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx
http://www.paveepoint.ie
http://www.childrensrights.ie
http://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Louth_County_Council
I can't imagine the pain the families must all be going through, sad one indeed by the council. Hopefully, common sense prevails at the end of the day. Greetings.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the comment Blogo , sadly this attitude is very prevalent by those who ought to know better.
DeleteAnd can you imagine also why these young children grow up to be so disturbed and to feel that no-one wants them. What possible harm could they have been doing? But there are (and always will be) people who want them elsewhere. There is so much unkindness and cruelty in the world.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your considerate reply Pat, which I totally agree with.
Delete... u mean: traveller as in "traveller", Mr. H ??? ... I do remember being taken from my home just cuz we were travellers ... I do remember hidin in dat closet with ma cat ... an den dey took me ... never knew what became of ma cat ... ya ... Love, cat.
DeleteThey will know their families always want them and will grow up in the bosom of love and nurturing. Travellers stick together. They are not like the disturbed children of drug addicts and alcoholics who get taken into care on a daily basis and fostered out having seen nothing but the effects of drugs and violence and squalor in their short lives and will know they come only a distant second to heroin and crack cocaine.
DeleteYes, Cat members of the Irish Travelling Community and it is in times like this that am glad not to be a god botherer; in that I have no association with the chapel or church goers that commit such crimes against their fellows. Because you can bet your last euro/dollar that almost every person involved in the eviction will be at the local temple exemplifying what it is to be a good christian.....
DeleteThank you for your perspective Rachel.
DeleteIt's a case of NIMBY and uprooting a community that doesn't live up to the 'norm'. Despicable !
ReplyDeleteThank you Patricia you are absolutely right and I particular fear for the Syrian refugees who are coming into this country because it seems that we are unable to care for our travelling community.
DeleteI think the eviction barbaric. I hadn't considered Rachel's point ever before; it is valid, but will not make the children, and adults, feel less outcast.
ReplyDeleteWe are in agreement Joanne, thank you for your observation.
DeleteA horrible thing to do, not only at this time of year, but especially now when it's so cold. Where are these people's compassion? I wonder what would happen if the police refused to enforce the order? I'd love to see that happen.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your appreciation of this dire situation Val. As to the Garda refusing to co-operate with the Louth County Council... I cannot be certain that they would ever consider doing so... but who knows ?
DeleteMy heart breaks for the Traveller families, especially the children, to be treated with such contempt and degradation. Equally painful, though, is the lack of humanity and compassion in the Louth County Council and the people who's apathy allows it to happen. What happened to them that they are missing the biggest pieces that make us human?
ReplyDeleteToni thank you for your comprehensive comment. As far as the people are concerned they have been taught or perhaps brainwashed into believing that Travellers are not worthy of equal treatment. I may be wrong, but most of the ordinary citizens are afraid to think for themselves and so they perpetrate whatever their parents told them as children. That applies to the councillors too especially those who belong to this government and the previous one.
DeleteWe are discovering in the U.S. with the popularity of Donald Trump that prejudice and the fear of thinking for oneself is rampant. Is it a lack of confidence and self-worth or just too lazy to figure it out for themselves?
DeleteI think that people have become complacent and spoon fed and perhaps media hype, Facebook etc has a lot to do with this.
DeleteHave sent you something on gmail :)
I don't understand this. I know very little about Travelers, the ones with the caravans and horses ?
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with the children in school ? I thought that is what we all want educated people ?
If that was a "halting "place for them why change it unless it is a land grab by stupid people.
Just a horrible thing to do anytime but worst in winter.
cheers, parsnip and thehamish
I totally agree with you Parsnip and I have no idea why the crackpots in Louth C.C. did this.
DeleteThank you for your comment.
Hi Mel - always a difficult situation ... but on freezing cold nights, when representation had been made in August, seems to be thoughtless and selfish. Lack of communication ... but if the Travellers cause no harm or interfere: obviously we don't know the full story ..
ReplyDeleteI hope some form of settlement can happen. Cheers Hilary
Thank you for your understanding Hilary.
ReplyDeleteThe Latest Update
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - 10:24 am
The solicitor representing Traveller families facing eviction from a former halting site in Co Louth has said that their lives are "all over the place".
Residents of Woodland Park in Dundalk will meet with Louth County Council at midday in an effort to sort a permanent housing solution after they began evicting residents from the site over health and safety concerns.
The families have until tomorrow to vacate the site.
Their solicitor Eleanor Kelly says they want to remain there until a permanent solution is found.
"Because they have been there for nearly a year, and various Council representatives have come in and out over the months,
"They've kind of got mixed messages and felt that they were going to be allowed to stay there.
"So obviously their lives are all over the place at the moment, they can't even think straight they're under so much pressure to sort themselves out.”
Further:
Sinn Féin has said that a halting site in Dundalk, where residents have been told to leave, should instead be refurbished.
Party leader Gerry Adams said that it is unjust to evict people from their homes when there is no re-location plan in place.
Twelve families were recently removed from Woodlands Park by the local council.
This Wednesday has been set at the eviction day for residents from the site.
Deputy Adams said that 20 children and a number of pregnant women are among those who have been told to move.
"They've no where to go," he said.
"I mean, where can they go? One woman told me that they slept in cars, one woman told me she slept in the back of a van.
"There's no plan at all by the council to re-house [them], and as a result of Government policy, Louth County Council didn't build any affordable and social housing last year at all."