10/10/2025
10th Anniversary of the Carrickmines Fire Tragedy
The Irish Traveller Movement remember the Lynch, Gilbert and Connors families on this decade anniversary.
Friday October 10th 2025 marks ten years since the devastating fire in a temporary Traveller halting site in Carrickmines, South Dublin in which 10 people of an extended family - 5 adults, 5 children and an unborn child- lost their lives.
Given the ‘temporary / emergency’ status of the site on Glenamuck Road, it was exempt from standard planning and fire safety guidelines. The 2019 inquest reported the portacabins did not meet building regulations and their proximity “virtually assured” the fire would spread. Since their deaths several accidental fires have occurred in halting sites but without loss of life.
After the fire The National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management NDFEM were mandated to oversee a national review of fire safety in local authority provided Traveller accommodation, and in 2019 a Guide to Fire Safety in Existing Traveller Accommodation was published. It made provisions applicable for all halting sites, regardless of perceived status as permanent or temporary and to include housing, caravans and other non-standard accommodation.
In their 2016 Report the NDFEM recommended fire safety should be a standing item on Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committees, established as a requirement of councils every 5 years, and be added to the brief of the NTACC, the National oversight committee on Traveller accommodation. The NTACC writes annually to local authorities seeking updates including on outstanding issues identified, the last report issued in 2023. However, findings demonstrate significant variability in local authority approaches to the issue of fire safety on sites.
In the 2023 count, 576 families still reside in unauthorised halting sites and a further 980 are sharing housing, accounting for approximately 6,224 individuals living in unsafe conditions. Local member groups affiliated to the ITM report
countless instances of overcrowding with sometimes three generations in a shared property creating a greater fire risk.evidence of some councils overlooking risks on unauthorised sites, where fire safety is a significant issue due to the inaccessibility to utilities and main infrastructures and despite those families awaiting more permanent accommodation for several years.
the lack of fire hydrants in proximity to sites resulting in delays and difficulties for emergency services attending to fires
caretakers as key holders, on some sites are off duty at night leading to inaccessibility for emergency services.
The Irish Traveller Movement and national Traveller organisations advocated at the time of the Carrickmines inquest for an amendment to planning legislation to ensure beyond ‘guidance’ that temporary emergency halting sites and all Traveller accommodation, would meet fire safety and planning regulations, this did not happen.
Director of the Irish Traveller Movement Bernard Joyce said ‘10 Years on Travellers, organisations and Human Rights Bodies have all found insufficient progress made to address fire safety issues in Traveller accommodation coupled with a failure to supply, which has a knock-on effect of severe overcrowding, and therefore increases safety risks for Travellers as tenants of local authorities. The establishment of the National Traveller Accommodation Authority, a recommendation of the Expert Group in 2019 is still outstanding, under which fire safety could be monitored
The ITM found of an assessment of the Traveller Accommodation Programmes 2019-2024 that compared to all new builds in the State, just 96 new units of Traveller accommodation were delivered over 5 years.
The Expert Group on Traveller Accommodation in 2019 confirmed concerns raised by Traveller groups about fire risk on overcrowded halting sites, also finding where Travellers are removed from those sites they have nowhere else to go, and the matter of overcrowding for Traveller families in local authority housing, is also an increasing problem. It recommended a review of the quality of design, management and maintenance of Traveller accommodation, which is currently underway and a report due for publication.
In the absence of a centralised national report of supply and planning, the Irish Traveller Movement acquired through parliamentary questions an assessment of councils plans to supply new units (2016-2023) as part of their statutory Programmes. This showed 11 councils didn’t plan to supply over the 7-year period, including 2 of the largest, Limerick and South Dublin, and of 20 councils who did, targets were low including three of the Dublin authorities, despite the evident demand and rate of Traveller homelessness in the County. These included: Fingal who planned for just 7 units, Cork City 6 and Dun Laoire Rathdown 6.Of the 892 units overall in the planning process for Travellers over the 7 years, 28 units were earmarked for Fire Safety upgrades and 27 on grounds of Health & Safety.
Note to Editors
Those who died in the Carrickmines fire tragedy on October 10th, 2015; Jimmy (39) and W***y Lynch (25) brothers, and a sister, Sylvia (30). Thomas Connors (27), Sylvia’s husband, and the couple’s three children – Jim (5), Christy (3) and six-month-old Mary. W***y’s partner, Tara Gilbert, her daughter, Jodie (9), and their daughter, Kelsey (4).
Guide to Fire Safety in Existing Traveller Accommodatiohttps://cdn.fireireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/26095416/guide-to-fire-safety-in-existing-traveller-accommodation-2019.pdf
For further information please contact Jacinta Brack at [email protected] or Michael O’Donnell [email protected], or Bernard Joyce [email protected]
