Rejected: The houses at Cabragh Bridge, outside Thurles, which have been turned down by a family of Travellers due to the lack of stables

A group of families won't be moving into a €1.7m development of new houses that the council has built for them unless stables and land are provided for their horses at each house.

The dispute has arisen at Cabragh Bridge outside Thurles, where members of an extended Traveller family have lived for about 50 years. It centres on the construction of six new houses on a site opposite their 'temporary' settlement.

Tipperary County Council has said it is in "discussions" to try and resolve the problem.

The houses - two five-bedroom and four three-bedroom - are all but complete but for some minor issues which have to be resolved by the building contractor.

But the Travellers living across the road say they won't be occupying them unless two stables and at least half-an-acre of land are included behind each dwelling for their horses.

The development of the detached houses, with concrete walls to the rear, wooden fencing and a stone wall at the front, took more than two years to build at a cost of €1,718,670, plus VAT.

"They were to be built with a half-acre behind each house, with two stables," said Philip McCarthy, one of the residents at Cabragh Bridge.

"They (Tipperary County Council) changed it to a group project, like a mini-housing estate. The agreement was two stables and a half-an-acre for the horses, but they never came up with that."

Mr McCarthy, who is in his 40s and has lived on the bridge all his life, said the council made the original agreement with his late father, William McCarthy, more than a decade ago.

However, the council maintains that it has provided what it said it would.

"Our livestock is our culture, and a big, big part of our life," Mr McCarthy said.

"We'll have to come to some sort of agreement, because otherwise it's no good to us.

"We have paddocks here and stables and stuff, which is not across the way (in the new development).

"It's a beautiful project and we're happy with the project, but there's no room for the livestock. That's what's holding us up at the moment.

"They want us to drop our culture and throw it aside.

"It's a very, very hard thing for us to do. It's in our life, we're going back centuries."

The council is waiting on the contractor to finalise some outstanding issues with the construction. It said: "The council is also seeking vacant possession of the existing unauthorised site and is in discussion with the families in respect to same."

Asked if there was any sign of the houses being occupied, the council said: "Discussions are taking place amongst the parties with a view to resolving the matter at the earliest possible timeframe."

Mr McCarthy and another resident of Cabragh Bridge, who didn't want to be named, both said their solicitor was dealing with the problem.

They said there were up to 12 horses adjacent to their dwellings at any one time, but that they did not use the animals for sulky racing.

"We leave that to the big boys," the other man said.

They estimated that about "50 or 60" people were living in the mobile homes and caravans at Cabragh Bridge.

"We're coming up on 45 to 50 years here," Mr McCarthy said. "The houses are lovely, you couldn't ask for better homes. It's the ground they let us down on."

The matter is likely to be raised at today's meeting of Tipperary County Council.

Irish Independent