A traveller family headed by a seriously ill woman expects to be spending Christmas by the roadside after being turned down by Clare County Council for its Traveller Accommodation Programme.
Ms Mary O'Donoghue, who is in her 70s, and her extended family had lived at illegal sites around Shannon prior to the opening of the first of the county's Traveller group housing schemes last year. They were forcibly evicted in September, 2000, having fallen foul of the indigenous clause used by the council in assessing Travellers who are deemed to be from Clare.
They must be "permanently resident in the county for at least three years", the discretionary clause states. For the current programme, they had to be resident in the county when censuses were carried out by council officials on the Traveller population in the three years up to 2000. During that period, Ms O'Donoghue was in Co Cork, where her late husband was being treated for cancer.
A county council official said there was no right of appeal to the clause but there might be scope for accommodating some families in the next programme.
Mr David Joyce of the Irish Traveller Movement said the legality of "indigenous" policies was being raised with the Department of the Environment. "Clare has one of the worst policies in the country," he said.
Over the past two years, the O'Donoghue family has been moved six times by court order from different sites in Co Clare, the latest of which was imposed last month and is being appealed.
For the past week, the family members are back by the side of the road in Cork. They say there is no county other than Clare to which they can claim to belong. Doctors in Galway, where Ms O'Donoghue was being treated until recently, have warned that she needs access to basic services.
She was raised near Ennis more than 70 years ago and has lived in the county for most of her life. She and her late husband, Michael, raised several of their children around Shannon where they went to school.
Ms Kathleen O'Reilly, a daughter of Ms O'Donoghue's, said they were now being treated as "blow-ins" in Clare. "That is her home. That is what she calls her home. All the family was bred there."
According to Ms Heather Rosen, a member of the Ennis and Clare Committee for Travelling People, differences in approaches towards inclusion is inhibiting the accomplishment of the National Traveller Accommodation Plan, due for completion in 2004.
"Co Clare has a rule that is pushing people into other counties," she said.
Last year, the O'Donoghues and four other families found themselves within the one-mile radius zone of the new Ballymurtagh group scheme near Shannon and were evicted.
The Traveller Accommodation Act allows eviction measures in such cases to prevent clustering around official Traveller sites.
In a subsequent court case, the three-year rule was used by the county council to move the family from a site they moved to in Shannon.
Ms Rosen said the discretionary clause amounted to "a fundamental disregard for nomadism and cultural difference".
She added that it restricts movement, making people afraid to leave an area, which can sometimes exacerbate tensions. She quotes a social worker who reported Travellers' upset at comments by council staff such as, "If you're not in, you can't win."
The Co Clare definition of "indigenous" is one of several "that make redundant the meticulous attention that went into the Traveller Accommodation Act", Ms Rosen added.
In the neighbouring county of Limerick, the definition is less stringent. If Travellers are born there and resident in the area for at least a year, they are eligible to apply for the programme.
In Limerick city, Travellers who have a direct relation from the city and who have lived there for more than a year can apply. Mr Joe Delaney, a housing officer, said there were 40 families on the programme, and a planning application for one site, Toppins Field, was being considered.
A planning application for Childers Road was withdrawn to allow discussion between Travellers, residents and corporation officials.