Traveller family with eight children living in one-room unit, inquiry finds
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Travellers are having their rights violated due to their substandard living conditions, according to campaigners, with more than 20 families "living in limbo" and one family — with eight children — residing in a one-room unit.
The latest inquiry on accommodation from the Galway Traveller community, as part of its Traveller Homes Now campaign, also highlights how in Carrowbrowne, one of Galway city’s largest sites, "children were left on the transient site for 18 months without heat and water throughout the height of the pandemic".
The campaign, supported by the Galway Traveller Movement, initially undertook a baseline survey of the standard of Traveller-specific accommodation across the city and county in 2017, and set out benchmarks for progress by local authorities.
Its fourth evaluation report is nearing completion.
The latest inquiry on accommodation will take place today and feature international guest speakers Leilani Farha, global director of THE SHIFT housing initiative and former United National Special Rapporteur for housing; and Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues.
The Galway Traveller Community and Galway Traveller Movement would like to invite you to an inquiry highlighting the persisting accommodation inequities experienced by the Traveller community.
— Galway Traveller Movement (@gtmtrav) November 10, 2021
Register at: https://t.co/jQc3BNpRSP#BuildHomesBuildHealthBuildHope pic.twitter.com/WsI3ZJZSjI
In advance of the event, members of the Traveller Homes Now campaign said the situation faced by many families was still severely damaging to physical and mental wellbeing.
Anne Marie Stokes, a member of the Galway Traveller community, said: "Too many of our children are still living in cold and damp conditions, sometimes having to go to bed on damp mattresses because of water leaks and condensation.
"They have to live in overcrowded conditions. And what’s most distressing is that they know it, they feel it, and they are anxious about it.”
Nora Corcoran, another member of the campaign, said: "There is an intrinsic link between accommodation and key indicators that affect the everyday life, wellbeing, and life chances of members of the Traveller community, and core to this is health.
“The conditions in State-provided and funded accommodation is deplorable.
"The effects of these conditions on physical health is evident, but the effect these problems have on the mental health of residents is the hidden health epidemic that Travellers live with all the time.
"It’s unfair, it’s unforgivable, and it’s being ignored for too long.”