Travellers like Tullamore native Patrick McInerney and his wife Melissa have spent over a decade living on unauthorised sites. They are regularly on the move, sometimes evicted within a couple of weeks of arriving to a new site.



"It is very hard on the kids because we could have to leave at 12 or 1 in the night. The kids are dragged out of bed, out into the car and leave. We could be going all night before we actually get into a camp, so it's quite hard on the kids," Melissa told RTÉ Investigates.

"The following morning the kids are tired and they are up all night and they are not able to go to school. It has been torture - you could get a week here, get a few days, pack up and go again," Patrick added.

Patrick McInerney says that if a new halting site for the Tullamore area had been built it could have improved life for his three young children.

"It would have made a big difference because we wouldn't be here on the side of the road, we'd have our own electricity, water and toilets, the kids would be in school every day, they wouldn't be missing days off school, we wouldn't be tormenting people pulling in on their land and stuff like that - it'd be a lot of help to be honest."

Money wasn't behind the failure to approve the proposed new halting site for the Tullamore area, which would have been paid for by the Department of Housing. In the period from 2000 to 2017 Offaly County Council was allocated almost €8.8m for refurbishing or building Traveller accommodation by the department but spent only €6.2m, according to figures supplied to Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin. That's over €2.5m left unspent.