JUDGE Harvey Kenny, at Ballina Circuit Court yesterday, directed Mayo County Council to draw up a list of travellers indigenous to the county.
He was dealing with applications for injunctions by Ballina Urban Council against five travellers to remove their caravans and cars from St Patrick's estate.
The judge said the traveller issue had to be addressed and it was common sense going out the door when the councils were paying a lot of money getting costs against travellers, possibly not collecting them and then having them billed to the taxpayers.
The councils would have to stop "this constant moving", he said. A solution was manageable once the travellers were declared indigenous.
Asked what was being done about a halting site in the town, Mr Martin Keating, town clerk, said the council was formulating a plan which would be available in a month or six weeks, and they would then be in a position to deal comprehensively with the problem.
The judge ordered two of the respondents to move their vehicles out of Ballina within 24 hours, made an order against two others to park beside a occupied by a fifth respondent and warned that daily fines of £50 would be imposed for litter.