FINGAL COUNTY Council has paid more than €5 million to seven Traveller families, and continues negotiating with two other groups, to move off lands at Dunsink Lane, which the council will now buy from its original owners.
The council has been attempting to purchase the land, an approximately 40-acre site to the west of Finglas, for more than 10 years but has been blocked by Travellers who claimed "possessory title", also known as "squatters' rights", to the land.
More than 90 per cent of the land had now been vacated, the council said, at a €5,470,000 cost in settlements to seven groups representing a number of individuals and large families.
The council is still in negotiations with two remaining groups who claim possessory title over a "small portion of the lands" in question, the council said.
The council must then buy the land from its original owners. It has secured a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the land and has agreed a price with the owners.
However, it said it would not be in a position to disclose details of the price paid until the CPO process was finalised. This could not be finalised until negotiations with those occupying the land were completed.
In 1997 the CPO for the council to acquire the land was approved by the minister for the environment. In March 2000 the council chose to exercise the CPO and gave notice to both the owners and those occupying the lands.
The council entered into negotiations with the legal representatives of the owners of the land, but a council spokesman said they received no response from the occupiers of the land to several letters sent between May 2000 and June 2005.
The council again approached the occupiers in August 2006. In December that year a number of the Traveller families left the site. Others who remained made claims that they had legal rights to remain on the land. The council began dealing with these claims in early 2007.
The Travellers claimed rights to the land on the basis that they had been living there for more than 12 years, which is the legal threshold for claiming possessory title commonly known as squatters' rights.
Some families had been living on the lane for up to 40 years and had built permanent dwellings and set up businesses.
The council chose not to argue these possessory title cases in the court and has not conceded the Travellers' claims, but chose instead to look for negotiated settlements.
While the price agreed with the owners of the land has not been disclosed, it is understood that it is lower than market value to reflect the fact that the land had been overtaken by other parties.
Despite the high cost of securing vacant possession, the council said it was essential to bring the 40 acres into its ownership as they are at the centre of 800 acres of green and brownfield lands which the council is seeking to redevelop.
The landbank, which is almost half the size of the Phoenix Park, stretches from the M50 in the west to the Dublin city/Fingal county boundary in the east, and from the Cappagh Road in the north to the N3 in the south.
One of the largest elements of the landbank is the former Dunsink landfill which was decommissioned in recent years and lies opposite the CPO lands. The site also incorporates the Dunsink Observatory, parts of the Tolka valley and the Royal Canal, a public golf course, and a number of official Traveller halting sites.
It has yet to be determined what the land will ultimately be used for, however a land use study commissioned by the council three years ago is due for completion this summer.
The council has indicated that it intends to keep a large amount of the land for amenities such as parks and community facilities. However, it has also said that housing will be built on some parts of the land.
