The High Court has given a local authority six weeks to comply with its legal obligations to provide Traveller accommodation.
Two families living in Athy brought the action against Kildare County Council claiming it had failed to deliver on its commitments in its Traveller Accommodation Programme, and so had breached its legal obligations.
The families, both called Carthy, have been living at separate locations by the side of the road in Athy for over five years. They include seven children living without electricity, running water, a refuse collection or toilet facilities.
In his judgment handed down in the past fortnight, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill called their living conditions "an emergency" and demanded an "urgent solution to the accommodation needs" of the families. This is the first time Travellers have legally challenged a local authority for its failure to meet commitments in a Traveller Accommodation Programme.
Its outcome could lead to a spate of similar actions against other local authorities across the State.
Local authorities were mandated to draw up a five-year programme to accommodate Travellers within their catchment areas in 1998, to run from 1999. The deadline expired in March with no local authority meeting this deadline.
Under the terms of its Traveller Accommodation Programme, Kildare County Council committed to developing a six-unit group housing scheme in Athy. This would free up permanent halting-site bays for the Carthy families. However the families were recently told the council did not expect to have the group housing scheme ready until 2007 - four years behind schedule.
In his judgment, Mr Justice O'Neill described the accommodation of the Carthy families as "depressing and precarious". He noted the families had been assessed by the council as having a right to accommodation as part of its Traveller plan. "So in my view the local authority are bound by that duty".
While he said he accepted there was a sincere intention on the part of the council to meet its obligations, "it simply could not be said that they could allow the delay or to leave them in the hazard for the lengthy period of time so far gone by".
He said proposals to move the families to a site over 20 kilometres from Athy would damage "the educational prospects of their children".
The parents had "made an extremely impressive effort to cater for the educational needs of their children", he said and continued: "There is a heavy duty on all organs of the State, including me in this case, and also respondents, to vindicate their rights to that primary education."
"This is now an emergency and the local authority . . . must use whatever hours they have to deal with them [(THE FAMILIES]as an emergency," said the judge. He adjourned the case for six weeks to give the council "an opportunity to once again consider the problem". The parties are due back before him on May 27th.
Council spokesman Charlie Talbot said no comment could be made while the Traveller accommodation unit studied the judgment.
The Irish Traveller Movement welcomed the judgment, "particularly the comment from Justice O'Neill emphasising the need for local authorities to provide accommodation within a given time to families who have been assessed as part of the Traveller Accommodation Programmes".
