A group of Westmeath councillors has welcomed an adjournment in a challenge to a plan to house about 1,000 male asylum seekers in tented accommodation in Athlone.
The case has been conceded by the State, but the councillors say substantive environmental and planning issues remain.
Protests were held in Athlone over the plan to erect up to 150 army-style tents for asylum seekers on a site to the rear of the existing Lissywollen direct provision centre. It had been proposed that the tents would eventually be replaced with modular units.
At the High Court earlier this week, lawyers for Cllr Paul Hogan, who brought the challenge against the expedited plan, said the case had been conceded by the State and that the development would be deemed “unauthorised”.
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Mr Justice Richard Humphreys on Thursday adjourned the matter to January 27th.
In a statement, the councillors behind the challenge said that while the case had been conceded “on a narrow basis”, the State is “yet to engage with some of what we feel are our even stronger grounds for judicial review”.
“While we have been informed that the site will remain in operation until there is a final determination by the court, the State confirmed that all works on the site in Lissywollen will cease this Friday [December 20th],” they said.
“Accordingly the court has adjourned the matter until January 27 in order to tease this out in more detail. We welcome this decision as it now gives us a potential opportunity to have all our wider issues of concern heard in full by the High Court.”
The group says that there remain “substantive environmental and planning issues that deserve further consideration”.
The statement is signed by Mayor Frankie Keena, Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, Cllr John Dolan and Cllr Hogan.
At the High Court on Monday, Oisín Collins SC with David O’Brien, instructed by solicitors PB Cunningham & Co, for Cllr Hogan, told the judge that “the case is being conceded” by the Minister for Integration and “the development will be classified as an unauthorised development”.
In his challenge, Mr Hogan claimed the ministerial process providing for the expedited plan was unlawful, irrational and a breach of fair procedures. He wanted an order either pausing or quashing the statutory instrument the Minister made for the Athlone site.
The instrument confirmed the project did not need An Bord Pleanála’s approval and noted that Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman was satisfied that two specific environmental assessments under EU law did not need to be conducted before proceeding with the plan.
Mr Hogan claimed the Minister failed to adequately screen the project for potential environmental impacts and that he lacks the expertise to carry out such assessments. There were also deficiencies in the assessment of wastewater requirements and effect on traffic, he alleged.
He claimed the occupants would be free to move about and would “inevitably cause a significant traffic hazard and a health and safety issue” next to the site and along the road.
He submitted that Athlone has a long tradition of providing accommodation and support to people seeking international protection, with one of the first direct provision centres in the State constructed on the adjoining Lissywollen site in 2001.
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