The number of Travellers in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim is falling.
The latest figures from Census 2016 show 586 Irish Travellers lived in County Donegal in April 2016, a fall of more than 19% since 2011.
There were 383 Travellers living in Sligo, a decline of more than 7% in the five years.
And in Leitrim, there were 203 Travellers, a drop of more than 23%.
The fall in numbers in the three counties contrasts with the overall national picture which shows the number of Irish Travellers increased by more than 5% to almost 31,000.
Bernard Sweeney, a member of the Traveller community from Sligo, says some Travellers may not want to identify themselves as such:
[audio mp3="https://img.oceanfm.ie/prod/uploads/2017/04/travellerONE07.mp3"][/audio]
And he agrees that many Travellers simply may not have filled out a Census form:
[audio mp3="https://img.oceanfm.ie/prod/uploads/2017/04/travellerTWO07.mp3"][/audio]
