Member families of the Traveller Community must be treated with dignity. This is the firm stance shared by Irish Green Party Senator Malcolm Noonan following a site visit to Spring Lane in Cork. Speaking as part of the Oireachtas Committee on Issues affecting the Traveller Community, the Green politician stated that a profound “step change” is required in how the State and local authorities approach Traveller-specific accommodation.
“Our committee heard shocking testimonies from witnesses regarding conditions at Spring Lane; conditions that have not materially improved in 30 years,” Senator Noonan said. He highlighted that this unacceptable reality is lived daily by many Traveller families across Ireland. The Irish Green Party maintains that the delivery of housing must go beyond meeting bare survival needs. Instead, future collaborative planning must utilize urgency and innovation to offer a high quality of life, providing warm, comfortable homes alongside proper community facilities as a default standard.
Official Redevlopment Plans Already Out of Date
While welcoming the recent invitation-to-tender for the redevelopment of Spring Lane and Ellis Yard, the Chair of the Cork City Council Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran, issued a strict warning. He pointed out that the council’s current blueprints are already out of touch with the actual population density of the site.
“At a visit to the site, we counted at least 48 units that are occupied. That’s already short of the 42 units that the new plan will deliver,” Councillor Moran warned. The Green representative explained that the current state framework completely leaves out an entire extended family who has repeatedly requested to be relocated away from the site. Furthermore, the official numbers fail to account for individuals who have moved back onto the halting site unofficially due to the wider housing crisis, or those currently sleeping on floors and in vehicles.
An Urgent Call for Inclusive Housing Solutions
The Irish Green Party emphasizes that state structures are lagging far behind reality when it comes to delivering appropriate, community-specific housing. For the Greens, true progress cannot be claimed until every unaccounted-for family, born and raised on these sites, is explicitly included in a comprehensive, localized housing strategy. The party vows to keep pushing for vulnerable minority rights, ensuring that a safe and comfortable home is treated as a foundational human right.
