Dublin City Council has asked the High Court for an order of possession of apartments occupied by two families in the Eamon Ceannt Tower, Ballymun, Dublin.
The tower is scheduled for demolition as part of the €2.4 billion regeneration development planned for the area. It is said to be at the proposed centre of a new swimming pool and leisure complex which is to be constructed there.
The two families are the only people remaining in the tower out of 90 families who had lived there but have moved.
The families are refusing to leave because the council will not provide them with accommodation of their choice outside Ballymun. The demolition of the Eamon Ceannt Tower cannot proceed until the two families leave.
The council's proceedings are against Ms Veronica McDonald, who lives in one apartment with her husband, son and daughter; and Ms Laura McGrath, who lives on the eighth floor with her 10-year-old son, who has special needs and is disabled.
Ms McDonald and Ms McGrath are opposing the application for orders of possession.
Mr Dominic Hussey SC, for the council, told Miss Justice Carroll yesterday that the two families had been served with notices to quit but were refusing to move until they had been housed in what essentially was housing of their choice.
The council had offered them a variety of accommodation, including brand new accommodation.
The defendants were seeking to be accommodated in areas of their choice. The council did not have the accommodation desired.
Both families had certain priorities on the housing list, but they were not at the head of it and the council could not accommodate their wishes. A number of different alternatives had been offered. None was of lesser quality to that which the defendants occupied.
Mr Gerard Durcan SC, for the families, said that if the council got the order for possession, this would effectively dispose of the case before any full hearing, because the tower block would be destroyed.
He said that his clients had established a case for a full hearing, as there had been a failure by the council to consider their housing needs in accordance with the Housing Act.
In an affidavit, Mr Seán Smyth, Ballymun area housing manager, said that after consultation with the residents' association and following the planning process, the council had started a scheme for the redevelopment of the complex. It was now proposed to demolish the Eamon Ceannt Tower. All the tenants of the tower block except the two families had agreed to the council's request that they vacate the building to enable demolition to proceed. The other tenants had been provided with suitable alternative accommodation.
Ms McDonald, together with her husband and two children, was occupying a three-bedroomed flat measuring 78 square metres.
The accommodation she had been offered measured approximately 90 square metres.
Ms McDonald, in an affidavit, said that she had been seeking a transfer from Ballymun for years. She first became a tenant of the council in October 1984. They had had a number of transfers. At one stage they took a house in Tallaght and they had become tenants in their present accommodation in April 1989.
They had never been awarded a permanent tenancy because it was intended to demolish the building, she said. As a result, they were denied rights to purchase their home - rights enjoyed by tenants of the council elsewhere.
They had been temporary tenants of the council for 18 years.
The hearing continues today.