Law used to evict Travellers from public land may need review

Legislation used to evict Travellers from public land could be in breach of a Supreme Court ruling and should be "urgently updated" to take account of their needs, Travellers and human rights advocates have warned.

According to the latest official figures, more than 500 Traveller households are camped on unauthorised sites across Ireland and deemed “vulnerable to eviction”.

In a ruling on Monday the Supreme Court overturned a decision to grant Clare County Council orders requiring a Traveller family to vacate council lands near Ennis where they had been living for several years.

In 2019 the council obtained a High Court injunction requiring the McDonagh family to leave the lands immediately. The injunction was challenged and then upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2020.

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Bernard and Helen McDonagh appealed and the Supreme Court agreed to hear their case. It agreed the lower courts had erred in not considering the proportionality of compelling them to leave the land that had been their home since 2017. The McDonaghs say they have nowhere else to go.

The court cited both article 40.5 of the Constitution, guaranteeing the “inviolability” of a dwelling, and article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and ruled the McDonaghs had a fair case. These will have to be considered by the High Court when it hears the full dispute.

Solicitor Chris McCann, who runs the Traveller legal service in the Free Legal Advice Centres, said the judgment was “significant”.

Essentially, he noted, the Supreme Court was saying there should be judicial oversight of proposed evictions of Travellers by councils from public land.

“There should be a proportionality assessment undertaken by a court and that then means the personal circumstances of the family need to be taken into account, the conduct of the local authority seeking to evict them would be taken into account, in terms of its provision of alternative housing for those they wish to evict,” said Mr McCann.

“This judgment should really put councils on notice that if they issue a notice against an individual’s or family’s home, they are leaving themselves vulnerable to challenge. This judgment could be invoked,” he said.

‘Poor victory’

Bernard Joyce, director of the Irish Traveller Movement, said the importance of the judgment "can't be overestimated".

Vindicating Travellers’ right to accommodation through the courts, however, was “a poor victory”, he added.

“We ask the Minister for Housing to take account of the ramifications of this case and ensure Travellers are fairly treated without fear of eviction and that current eviction legislation and procedures will form part of the Government review of the Equal Status Acts.”

The 2019 Traveller count found 529 Traveller families on unauthorised sites across Ireland, down from 591 in 2018 and 585 in 2017. In Co Clare, the number of families in such circumstances, usually without basic facilities, increased from seven in 2017, to 12 in 2018 and to 14 in 2019.

A Department of Housing spokesman said it “notes the recent ruling of the Supreme Court which it will now consider carefully”.

Clare County Council did not respond to a request for a comment.

A spokeswoman for the City and County Managers Association (CCMA) said: “The CCMA doesn’t have a comment at this time.”