THE HIGH Court has dismissed an application by members of the Travelling community for an injunction preventing Galway City Council from enforcing an order compelling them to leave a site on the outskirts of the city.
Members of the Delaney, McGinley, Donovan, Stokes and Corcoran families, who between them have 28 dependent children, applied for an injunction preventing Galway City Council from enforcing a Circuit Court order, made on March 25th last, directing the Delaney family from their location at Carrowbrowne transient halting site, Headford Road, Galway, in the absence of suitable temporary halting site accommodation.
A two-week stay was placed on the Circuit Court order, which ended yesterday. The families’ application for an injunction was dismissed on procedural grounds by Mr Justice John Edwards.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Edwards said that this was a complicated matter, but he could not grant the injunction because it was “misconceived on procedural grounds”. He had a difficulty because the order of the Circuit Court had not been appealed.
The injunction was sought as part of judicial review proceedings brought against a decision made by Galway City Council.
The judge said the High Court could not “cut across” a valid order made by another court.
Following the judge’s ruling, the court heard that an application that would allow for an appeal against the Circuit Court order of March 25th would be made before the High Court.
Kiwana Ennis for the families said they were seeking the injunction as part of judicial review proceedings, for which they had previously been granted leave by the High Court, of Galway City Council’s adoption of a Traveller Accommodation Programme 2009 to 2013.
It is claimed that the programme does not include the provision of residential halting sites identified as being required in an assessment of the families’ needs.
In their judicial review proceedings, the families claim that this failure amounts to a breach of the council’s statutory duties in relation to the provision of accommodation for members of the Traveller community.
The families have been at the site since mid-March. They say they have been on a waiting list for between two and seven years and that no suitable offer of accommodation has been made to them.
They say they will accept halting site accommodation within Galway city because their children are attending local schools.
Opposing the application, John Gallagher SC for the city council said it was “not the case” that his clients were in breach of their statutory duty.
Mr Gallagher said that offers of accommodation had been made, but had been refused, while other members of the families left housing.