Traveller Visibility Group says accommodation crisis facing travellers is a pressure pot waiting to explode

“A pressure pot waiting to explode”

That’s how the Traveller Visibility Group has described the accommodation crisis facing travellers in Cork

The group say travellers’ housing needs in Cork are not being met and in some cases are being ignored by local authorites whom they accuse of being negligent in providing maintenace for existing sites

TVG says a National Traveller Accommodation Agency needs to be established as the current model is not working and is failing the Traveller Community

The group say it has been over 30 years since the last addition to Traveller Accommodation in Cork city and halting sites are now so severely overcrowded that they pose a health risk to people living there

Speaking to RedFM News Breda O’Donoghue of TVG says they are now issuing an urgent cry for help.

“It’s a pressure pot waiting to explode. If this doesn’t happen and it doesn’t happen soon, I’d be very worried about what is going to happen to the community.

“This community has dealt with so much over the last five or six decades, I don’t know how much more people can take.

“We fare very poorly across every socio and economic state. Our infant mortality rate is higher, we die younger, our suicide rate is higher, we are over represented in the prison service, we are over represented in the homeless section.

“Something has got to give.”