The Government "is criminalising a people because it has failed to do its job," one of the State's leading human rights activists has said.
Mr Michael Farrell, of the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, was addressing a protest meeting in Dublin yesterday organised by Traveller groups opposed to new trespass legislation.
Traveller groups say the legislation, which is due to be enacted before the end of the month, will empower local authorities to forcibly remove Travellers from public land while allowing them "to get away with not providing Traveller accommodation".
Yesterday's protest called on the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, not to sign the commencement order for the Housing Provision (Miscellaneous) Bill 2002.
If enacted, it will make trespass on private or public land a criminal offence, punishable by a month in prison and/or a €3,000 fine. The Government says it is aimed at curtailing large-scale illegal Traveller encampments in the summer, which, in the past, have necessitated costly clean-up operations. Travellers, however, say it will criminalise Travellers living on public land who have nowhere else to go.
"Local authorities will have the power to move Travellers on, but where to?" asked Ms Jacinta Brack, spokeswoman for the Citizen Traveller Campaign.
An estimated 1,200 Traveller families are living on illegal halting sites - in most cases by the side of the road - without electricity, running water or toilet facilities. Despite a recommendation by the Government Task Force on the Travelling Community in 1995 that 2,200 units of Traveller accommodation be provided, just 111 have been.
Gardaí estimate that up to 2,000 Travellers from across the State and members of the settled community took part in yesterday's march from Parnell Square to the Department of the Environment on Customs House Quay.
At one point the march stretched the length of O'Connell Street. Placards and banners read "Travellers' Rights, Human Rights", "Respect Our Nomadic Culture" and "Consult, Not Insult".
Mr Farrell said the legislation was not the way to deal with the issue of illegal encampments. "Travellers are being penalised and criminalised for the failure of the authorities and the Government to do their job."
He said the legislation called into question the Government's commitment to anti-racism, as it would act to prevent nomadism.
Mr Thomas McCann, equality officer with the Irish Traveller Movement, rejected arguments that the legislation would only be used against instances of mass trespass, such as that at Dodder Park in Dublin last summer.
"If a garda gets a complaint about a Traveller family stopping on land and he doesn't remove them, he'll be accused of not enforcing the law," he said.
Mr David Joyce, housing officer with Pavee Point, attacked the absence of Government consultation with Travellers' representatives in advance of the legislation.
"We only found out about it three days before it was published. We had no idea it was coming. In fact we had been given assurances by Department officials that the Minister did not favour criminalising trespass. It makes a mockery of partnership," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment said there was no question of the legislation being reconsidered.
