1. Address policy and procedure for:

• tracking and verifying the preferences of the Traveller community in relation to type of accommodation and ensuring a respect for Traveller culture and identity in meeting these;
• in light of recent developments, review current processes for Traveller participation in estate management on Traveller-specific accommodation to ensure its effectiveness;
• identifying and responding to specific needs of Travellers that flow from their distinct culture and identity, particularly in relation to horse ownership and accommodation for their horses;
• reviewing the provisions in relation to ‘indigenous Travellers’ and the local connection requirements to access housing supports, to ensure that there is no discrimination when compared to the requirements on the wider community;
• establishing and developing a response to the needs of Travellers who are nomadic within and through the county through the provision of transient halting site bays;
• identifying and developing culturally specific responses to the needs of Travellers experiencing homelessness;
• identifying and responding to the practical implications of the recognition of Traveller ethnicity, for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation and of standard housing;
• implementing the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in the next review of the TAP.

2. Establish and implement an ethnicity identifier in data gathering and analysis in relation to the provision of social housing and homelessness services and include all Traveller-specific accommodation options in housing applications (i.e. allow applicants identify themselves as a member of the Traveller community if they wish and for the sole purpose of identifying accommodation needs and include a list of needs/preferences any or all of which may be ticked, including, but not limited to permanent/transient halting site, group housing, outdoor space for dogs/horses and preference to be accommodated close to family members).
3. Develop a more transparent recording of the methodology of collection and data obtained in the annual count of members of the Traveller community (for example by survey, setting out the steps taken to ensure all members of the Traveller community were reached and including such questions as multiple accommodation preferences and difficulties in accessing such preferences or other accommodation in the past).
4. Consider the possibility of employing a Traveller Liaison Officer, in addition to the existing Tenant Liaison Officers, who should have a drop-in or phone clinic by which members of the Traveller community can voice any concerns they may have in respect of their accommodation directly. They could also assist with online applications where members of the Traveller community have no access to the internet. The officer should have regular meetings with members of the Council mandated with housing issues to ensure regular feedback on accommodation issues raised by members of the Traveller community.
5. Record data on both funds allocated and drawn down for Traveller-specific accommodation and those for general accommodation. This would help to inform the Council to ensure that there is no less favourable treatment of Travellers in the provision of accommodation. Account may be taken of the true preferences of members of the Traveller community whose accommodation needs are met through general housing funds and of the fact that some forms of accommodation are more expensive than others.
6. Assess over the coming years whether the new procedures set out in Circular 03/2020 of the DHPLG improve its rate of draw down for Traveller-specific accommodation. If no improvement is evident at that point, the Council should commission an independent report to determine the reasons for this and follow any recommendations made.

Appendix 1

In conducting any equality review, the Commission requested that the Council would address and report on the following:

• The practices, procedures and other relevant factors in respect of the provision of accommodation services to members of the Traveller community within the Council’s functional area;
• The amount of funds allocated by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government that the Council requested to draw down in each of the last four years;
• The amount of funding applied for by the Council to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, but which was not drawn down;
• If the entirety of funding allocation was not drawn down, to provide the reason(s) for this;
• For each of the previous four years, the projects for which the Council applied for funding from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and to confirm which of these received funding. To also confirm which of these projects were completed, and if not completed, to advise of the reason(s) for this;
• To confirm the amount of funding in respect of general or standard housing available to the Council in each of the previous four years, the amount requested to be drawn down and the amount in fact drawn down in each of these years;
• The impact that any failure to draw down allocated funds has on the Council’s statutory duty to provide sites for caravans, including sites with limited facilities;
• To confirm the amount of funding in respect of the provision of Traveller specific accommodation already applied for and/or that will be applied for in 2019;
• To specify how the issue of applying for and drawing down funding is to be addressed in the Council’s strategy for securing the implementation of its Traveller Accommodation Programme;
• Whether any issues of equality of opportunity or discrimination arise in respect of the above-mentioned practices, procedures and other relevant factors with regard to the provision of accommodation services to members of the Traveller community and the failure to draw down funding for Traveller specific accommodation; that is, are these practices, procedures and other relevant factors conducive to ensuring that service users who are members of the Traveller community can avail of accommodation services on an equal and non-discriminatory basis with service users who are settled persons/not members of the Traveller community; and
• Any recommendations and/or findings arising from the review.