‘Discriminatory’ to consult with residents over Traveller homes, Grealish told
CONTROVERSIAL TD Noel Grealish was told it would be “discriminatory” for a local authority to consult with residents before allocating social housing to members of the Travelling community.
In a letter to Mr Grealish, Galway City Council said there is no requirement on them to engage in consultation with communities before housing Travellers.
The council’s director of housing services, Dermot Mahon, said the local authority was “not in a position” to confirm who was being allocated a property in Carnmore.
“Equally, I am not at liberty to confirm whether the family to be housed at this property are members of the Travelling community.” Mr Mahon said.
“Under the Equal Status Act, it would be considered discriminatory to engage in consultation with local residents in relation to either the purchase or allocation of a property to a Traveller family where similar consultation is not held for all other acquisitions or allocations,” he added.
Mr Mahon said a “full assessment and Garda vetting process” was undertaken to “identify the family to be housed in the location”.
He said this happens for all housing allocations and added that the council was satisfied there are “no matters of anti-social behaviour that would prevent this allocation from proceeding”.
The letter also refers to Mr Grealish’s “concern” that the property bought by the City Council is in the administrative area of Galway County Council. Mr Mahon said his local authority informed Galway County Council before the house was bought.
He said the council was buying houses to provide accommodation for families living on a temporary halting site.
The correspondence was in response to a letter Mr Grealish sent to Galway City Council chief Brendan McGrath on April 24.
The details of Mr Grealish’s letter are unclear and he did not respond to queries seeking clarity on the contents of the original correspondence he sent to the local authority.
Sources said the council’s letter was received by residents living in Carnmore.
A Galway City Council spokesperson said Mr Mahon’s letter “reflects the position” of the local authority on the issue raised by Mr Grealish.
The Galway West TD was last year accused of racism over comments he made about Africans.
During a public meeting on a plans for a direct provision centre in Galway, he claimed economic migrants were coming to Ireland from Africa to “sponge off the system”.
He also used a Dáil debate to make inaccurate claims about €3.5bn being sent from Ireland to Nigeria over an eight-year period.
The comments were described as “racist” and “disgraceful” by former TD Ruth Coppinger.
Mr Grealish is a member of the Regional Independents Group who were engaged in government negotiations with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.
Over the weekend, the group said it declined an offer to be briefed on the programme for government as the deal has yet to be ratified by the three parties.
Green Party members have raised objections with Eamon Ryan about the party entering into any government arrangement with Mr Grealish and Wexford Independent TD Verona Murphy.