Traveller action damages road - council

Some Travellers had excavated into the earthen bank of a site in Fingal and seriously undermined the stability of the public …

Some Travellers had excavated into the earthen bank of a site in Fingal and seriously undermined the stability of the public road, Fingal County Council claimed in the High Court yesterday. The council is taking an action to remove some 90 Travellers from the site.

The Travellers' action could have resulted in a road collapse, it is claimed.

The council has spent some €82,000 repairing an earthen bank which supported part of the R129 public road at a point where it became a flyover over the M1 motorway, the court was told.

It was also claimed that palls of thick black smoke frequently billowed across the M1 motorway because of the illegal Travellers' site at Thomondtown, Lusk, Co Dublin.

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In a counterclaim, the Travellers allege the council is in breach of its duty to provide them with accommodation.

John Gallagher SC, for the council, said Dublin Fire Brigade had been called to the 1.2-acre site about nine times since January last.

He said the burning of waste was creating a significant and serious risk to health and safety.

The site was also completely unsuitable for more than 90 people living there with no toilets or sanitation.

There were about eight mobile homes there since November 2005.

In a statement of claim, the council alleges the defendants had intimidated, obstructed and assaulted council employees from entering on the lands and that officers of the fire brigade had refused to enter the lands because of the nature of materials being burned and because of fears for their safety.

John Rogers SC, with John Doherty, for the Travellers, has lodged a counterclaim alleging the defendants were tenants of Dublin City Council on St Dominick's Park halting site for over 25 years and plans had been finalised to provide them with group housing on the site.

It is claimed that they were intermittently attacked by members of another Traveller family. In an incident in January 1st, 2005, four of the defendants and their family members were shot at, it is claimed. They fled to Belfast where they stayed for a few months but came back to Dublin and moved on to the unauthorised site in question.

The case continues.