A family was evicted from a house in Loughlinstown in south Dublin this afternoon after a woman spent more than six hours on a ladder in protest against the county sherriff executing a possession order for her home.
A large contingent of gardaí set up barriers on access roads leading to the house at Gleanntan estate, off Loughlinstown Drive and an ambulance was called to the scene after Ann Moore refused to dismount from the ladder, which was placed against the front wall of the house.
Neighbours said Mrs Moore had returned from a night shift in a nursing home where she is employed as a carer at about 8.15am today to discover the sherriff and some council staff already in her home. It is understood her husband Christy and three children who live in the house had left some time earlier when instructed to do so.
David Molloy, a nephew of Mrs Moore, said he had visited the house at 10am today and his aunt had said she was determined to stay up the ladder as long as possible. Gardaí later prevented people from going near the house.
Gleanntan is a leafy, well-maintained estate of semi-detached and terraced homes developed about 20 years ago by the local authority. It is close to the Loughlinstown Leisure Centre and the immediate area is a mix of public and private housing.
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County council said it had sent in the county sherriff having been previously been granted a warrant for possession issued by the district court. The council said it could not discuss individual cases but issued a statement saying "it is not in the council's interest to evict residents, and the council only resorts to eviction proceedings as a very last resort and when all possible alternatives have been exhausted."
However local councillor Hugh Lewis said rent arrears were at the core of the problem, and he and fellow socialist councillor Richard Boyd Barrett had been negotiating with the council management to have a scheme of repayments accepted.
He said he had known the family for about eight years and the construction downturn had impacted on the livelihood of some of the family. Mrs Moore had worked a 10-hour shift before coming home to find the situation, he said. She had taken to the ladder to make a point, he said, and had remained on the ladder for six hours and 40 minutes.
Cllr Lewis said rent arrears had built up, but since last October the family had been paying 150 per cent of their rent each month. He said this was accompanied by regular lump sum payments and the process would have seen the arrears erased within three years. However, he said the council had refused to negotiate and he believed the family were being used as an example to other families in arrears.
A group of about 60 neighbours who came out to offer support to the family paid tribute to Mrs Moore's husband Christy saying he was a force for good in the community.
Locals said a protest was now being planned for next Monday at lunchtime outside the council offices.
