A number of Traveller families were ordered by the High Court yesterday to move their caravans from near a national school in Ennis, Co Clare.
Mr Justice Smyth said Travellers could not expect the settled community to do "all the compromising" on accommodation issues.
The court heard the Travellers were families living with their children in one-room caravans. They said they had been evicted from several sites on 15 occasions and wanted to be housed in Ennis where they had grown up, most of them in houses. When they had married and had their own children, they had had to move out from their family homes and were unable to find accommodation.
What they wanted was to be able to live in Ennis and have their children attend school there, one man said. Several children had experienced respiratory and chest ailments due to their living conditions. They did not wish to be housed in Liscannor or Ennist-ymon on permanent halting sites.
Mr James Macken SC, for Ennis Town Council, said it was proposed to house the travellers at sites being developed in Liscannor and Ennistymon. His clients were contending these families had moved beside the school in order to gain an unmeritorious advantage over others seeking housing.
He said Ennis Town Council had developed a Traveller accommodation programme in consultation with Travellers and the settled community, and provision for the housing of these defendants had been made. Now the defendants were seeking to alter the delicate balance of that programme, Mr Macken said. They had been illegally parked near the school since January 6th, and the council had concerns about security and access. There were dirt and a public health nuisance.
After considering affidavits and submissions from both sides, Mr Justice Smyth said he would grant an interlocutory order requiring the defendants and their vehicles to vacate the site.
The judge said the matter had been before the court five times to date. The council had an obligation in law to house the defendants and it accepted that obligation. It was also obliged to implement the law and provide facilities.
He had no difficulty in seeing why the defendants wished to live in Ennis but the settled community too had to make compromises about where they lived. The implementation of the Traveller accommodation programme was a delicate and sensitive issue.
It seemed to him the council had behaved with good sense and sensitivity, and the court could not have people, however well-intentioned on their children's behalf, seeking to force on the council their own private entitlements.
There had to be a balance, and Travellers could not expect the settled community to do all the compromising. The Traveller accommodation programme was an attempt to deal fairly with accommodation needs and was the only viable framework.
The issue was not about what the Travellers wanted but was about their needs, the judge added. In his view, the balance of convenience lay with the council, and he would grant the orders sought.