Corporation says it has no alternative but to keep using the site

Galway Corporation says it has no plans to close a halting site beside a closed landfill at Carrowbrowne following settlement yesterday of a High Court case taken against it.

However, the Galway Travellers' Support Group has described the halting site as unsuitable and "bordering on dangerous". The location has been condemned by a public health expert in Galway, who called for its immediate closure.

Mrs Kathleen Corcoran had her case against Galway Corporation struck out yesterday with costs awarded to her. Commenting on the settlement, Ms Martina Moloney, acting city manager for Galway, said the site would continue to be used as there was no alternative.

Plans were in hand to employ consultants to advise on its upgrading and refurbishment under a five-year Travellers' accommodation strategy plan, Ms Moloney said.

Carrowbrowne, on the Head ford road, has long been the focus of controversy, given its proximity to a local authority landfill site which was eventually closed under a court order. Illegal dumping has continued in the area, which is rat-infested. An average of three to five families use the site under direction from the local authority from time to time.

The Corcorans, who are currently in Derry, maintained that conditions at the site were inadequate and inappropriate, and called on the local authority to provide more suitable accommodation.

Last year the couple lost two sons in a traffic accident and decided to move away from Galway, but yesterday Mrs Corcoran told The Irish Times she would take similar legal action in the morning if necessary.

In a health report on the site dated December 1997, Dr Sean Ua Conchubhair, of Oranmore, Co Galway, said that it should be closed forthwith. The report, which was exhibited in the pleadings by the Corcorans' solicitor, Mr Brian Lynch, compared the condition of the site to a previous survey conducted by Dr Ua Conchubhair in 1994.

Dr Ua Conchubhair noted that there was a supply of running water, but "no discoverable means of dealing with sewage". The site showed no evidence of maintenance and had deteriorated greatly since 1994. He recommended that the remaining buildings should be demolished.

Ms Margaret O'Riada of the Galway Travellers' Support Group said that use of the site should be immediately suspended, pending provision of an alternative, or else completely refurbished with tenant participation and estate management.

Only last week, two families on the roadside in Oranmore had been ordered to Carrowbrowne by the corporation, and this was an infringement of their human rights, she said.

"It is appalling to think of young children in there in this day and age," she said.

Ms Susan Regan of the support group said the local authority was within its legal rights to direct families to Carrowbrowne under section 32 of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998.