Action over `derelict' halting site struck out

A legal action by a Traveller couple challenging the condition of a "derelict and dilapidated" halting site adjacent to the Galway city dump at Carrowbrowne has been struck out by consent at the High Court.

A public health expert had recommended in 1997 that the halting site should be closed forthwith.

In an affidavit, Mrs Kathleen Corcoran said she no longer wished to live in the Co Galway area following the deaths of her two young sons in a road accident at Burnfoot, Co Donegal. The Corcorans previously had got liberty to seek judicial review.

Mrs Corcoran said her seven children had been raised around the Galway area, and she had no desire to remain there because her memories of the dead boys were closely associated with Galway. She was already feeling depressed living at Carrowbrowne. Her husband, Patrick, had suffered a stroke and found living at the site dangerous and uncomfortable.

Until the time of her sons' deaths in October 1999 she had intended to reside in Galway. She and her husband had initiated legal proceedings against Galway Corporation in October 1998 over the condition of the Carrowbrowne site and were seeking appropriate housing.

The case was listed for hearing yesterday, but at the outset Mr Mel Christle SC, for the Corcorans, said the only order required was to strike out the proceedings with an order for the plaintiffs' costs to be taxed in default of agreement.

Mr Hugh O'Neill SC, consenting to that order for the corporation, said the order was without admission of liability by the defendant.

In their action, the Corcorans claimed they had lived in a caravan at the Carrowbrowne site until July 1998 but since then had been forced to live outside Galway Corporation's functional area.

They had experienced evictions from unofficial halting sites and sought to be provided with appropriate permanent halting-site accommodation or permanent housing. After July 1998, because of conditions at Carrowbrowne, they had moved from there and lived in England and Derry.

They claimed there were no adequate electrical, washing or sanitary services at Carrowbrowne, and they had objected to the corporation over the condition of the site. In September 1998 they wrote to the corporation seeking suitable accommodation, but this was refused.

They sought declarations that the corporation had a statutory responsibility under the Housing Acts to provide suitable accommodation for them. They also sought a declaration that the site at Carrowbrowne was not sufficient performance of the corporation's duty to provide proper serviced halting sites. The site, they alleged, was dilapidated, derelict and unfit for human habitation.

The corporation denied the claims. It also contended that the Corcorans had moved outside the corporation's functional area from July 1998 and did not require the orders they sought. If the Corcorans returned to the area, the corporation said, it would properly deal with any application for housing.

The corporation also denied that it had a statutory responsibility under the Housing Acts to house the Corcoran family and denied that the accommodation at Carrowbrowne breached the Corcorans' constitutional rights to equality of treatment and bodily integrity.

In an affidavit in January 1999, Mr Ciaran Hayes, housing officer with the corporation, said it then had 62 applications from Travellers for housing. Of these, 46 required housing, 14 wanted halting-site accommodation and two sought Traveller-specific (group housing) accommodation. Of the 46, 19 were then living in approved halting-site accommodation.

Mr Hayes added that a census of Travellers in Galway taken in November 1998 recorded 208 families living in the area, with 137 of these having been provided with housing accommodation.

In a later affidavit Mrs Corcoran said her circumstances had changed fundamentally. Her sons were killed in a road collision in October 1999. As a result, she no longer wished to live in Galway.