Since last weekend's tragedy at Carrickmines, disturbing information has come to light on conditions on halting sites across the State and the lack of investment by the Government and local authorities in recent years. A tremendous article by Kitty Holland was published in The Irish Times which made devastating reading. The Carrickmines site was overcrowded; 29 people were sleeping in cabins and caravans at the time of the fire. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is one of 15 local authorities in the State that has drawn down no funding this year for Traveller accommodation. In the past seven years funding for accommodating members of the Traveller community has been cut by a shocking 93%, from €70 million in 2008 to €4.3 million this year. Of the 10,226 Traveller families in the State, 445 are living on unauthorised sites by the side of the road without anything but the most basic facilities. Some 104 families are living on basic serviced sites such as that on Glenamuck Road. A further 223 families are sharing halting site bays with other families, while 37 are sharing basic halting site bays with other families. In addition, 727 families are sharing houses with other families. A total of 1,536 families are living in overcrowded or unsafe conditions. This cannot continue. Will the Government immediately work with the Traveller representative groups to ensure lessons are learned from this tragedy and that Traveller families across the State will be provided with the safe and adequate accommodation they need?

The answer is "Yes". I visited the scene of the inferno at Carrickmines. The site, although a temporary site established eight or ten years ago, was very neat and clean. However, the units were located around the perimeter and made from the material that had caught fire, as a result of which ten people had lost their lives. It is an extraordinary tragedy and so sad for everybody involved.

The Deputy is aware that an audit is being carried out of all Traveller accommodation units and halting sites throughout the country, many of them in locations with which I am familiar. In Priory Hall, Longboat Quay and other locations around the country, places where all building regulations and planning conditions were supposed to be complied with, there have been fire traps. In this case I assume the corrosive smoke was responsible for people being unable to move when the fire occurred and it resulted in that difficulty.

Accommodation for Travellers is provided through a range of measures. There are the standard local authority housing units financed by way of the Department for the Environment, Community and Local Government's capital allocation for social housing. There is also Traveller-specific accommodation financed by the Department, while the purchase of private housing is assisted by the State and through Travellers' own resources. An approved Traveller housing body, CENA, has recently been launched and is due to commence operations shortly.

It is open to Travellers to opt for any form of accommodation. The 2014 annual count of Traveller families showed that of 10,226 families, the majority, 35%, were accommodated in standard social housing, 26% in private rented accommodation and 5% in assisted private housing, while 6% had been housed using their own resources. A total of 13% were accommodated in group homes or permanent halting sites and bays, 9% were sharing accommodation, 1% were on transient sites and 4% on unauthorised sites. That 4% represents a significant reduction from the first annual count which took place in 1999 and showed that 25% of Travellers were living on unauthorised sites. The reduction is due to significant investment in Traveller-specific accommodation such as group housing schemes and housing sites in recent years.

The level of investment was reduced in recent years, similar to many other forms of investment. Notwithstanding this, €400 million has been invested in the provision and support of this type of Traveller accommodation over the period. Every local authority has a five year programme to accelerate the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation. This requires particular expertise in the consultation process in the provision of the type of accommodation required for Traveller families. The programmes started in 2000 and the current programmes run from 2014 to 2018. During the period of the last programme 500 accommodation units were delivered.

Every council has a local Traveller accommodation consultative committee comprising local authority officials, members of Traveller representative groups and other relevant bodies, including public representatives. The committees assist in the preparation of the five-year rolling programmes and oversee implementation where possible. The National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, NTACC, is a national body appointed by the Minister. It comprises representatives of the different State agencies and so forth. It is the national platform for consultation.

The site in Glenamuck was not an unauthorised site. It was a temporary site, with services provided by the local authority, pending the putting in place of more permanent accommodation for the families. I understand a site at Glen Druid in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has been identified by the local authority in its Traveller accommodation programme for the period 2014 to 2018 for a group housing scheme of five units to meet the needs of the residents of Glenamuck. Funding approval has been granted by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and work is expected to be completed in 2017-18. In the interim, the necessity for a fully serviced, temporary site in the area for these families is being discussed and negotiated with a view to it being ready for occupation in the near future.

I trust the Taoiseach will address the investment issues I have raised and also the lack of leadership that has been shown, not only at Government level but also at local level across the State.

I have one more request to make of the Taoiseach today. For too long there has been a wall of distrust between the settled and Traveller communities in this State. Yesterday, some local residents in Glenamuck formed a blockade in protest at the plans to rehouse, on an emergency basis, those who have been left homeless by this inferno. It is a depressing spectacle but it reflects the wall of distrust that has been in existence for many years. We need citizens to show compassion and I hope the residents - who are meeting the council today - can facilitate this emergency arrangement.

There is a need for education and understanding between the two communities, and that is a two-way process. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality recommended quite some time ago that this State recognise the ethnicity of our Traveller people, something that has been called for by international human rights bodies to which we subscribe. It is time for the State to respect the unique contribution of Traveller communities in terms of their music, their language and their adherence to the ancient nomadic ways. We need to teach their history in our schools and break down the barriers and the walls that exist. It is time for this State to build the bridges of understanding. It is time to build on the solidarity that is there after this horrific tragedy.

Will the Taoiseach stand up in this Chamber and recognise the ethnicity of the Traveller people? Will he show the necessary leadership, although it will not just be required by him but by elected representatives across the State? Can we finally address the injustice of the report on itinerancy from the 1960s that perceived this as a dirty problem that had to be swept under the carpet? Can we once and for all be honest about the huge wall of distrust and take down the barriers? Can we recognise their ethnicity and start from there?

The first point the Deputy makes is important. Clearly, the vast majority of communities in this country are prepared to work with the local authorities and different agencies in their own interests. This is a very sensitive issue in that the funerals involved have not even taken place yet, although, to balance that, there has to be an explanation to any community of what a local authority intends to do as an emergency measure. I think that is only the normal courtesy that should apply in any circumstance and I hope that matter can be dealt with today in order to provide temporary accommodation for those remaining families at the Glenamuck temporary site.

In respect of the deeper question the Deputy raises, this is an issue that is reacted to in different ways in different parts of the country and, in many cases, it is based on unfortunate experiences that have taken place. The Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, has done quite a deal of work on this and has brought a report to the Cabinet sub-committee in respect of the question of ethnicity and whether that be recognised or not. I do not think there is any constitutional impediment to this but we have asked the Minister of State to examine a number of issues arising from his presentation. He will revert to the committee in due course on that matter.