The board of management of a school for autistic and disturbed children near Ennis, Co Clare, has challenged in the High Court a decision to provide emergency accommodation for Travellers on a site adjacent to the school.
Mr Justice Kelly granted leave to Mr Michael Howard, for the board of management of St Claire's School, Gort Road, Ennis, to seek orders quashing a decision of Clare County Council to establish the 13-bay halting site on council lands in the townland of Lifford, near the school.
This week local residents also secured leave to challenge the development, and an interim order restraining further work on the development was granted.
In an affidavit Ms Eileen Jones, principal of St Claire's, who was also speaking on behalf of the board, said the children attending the school had psychological and physical disabilities and it was essential that they had a calm and secure environment.
Many of the children suffer from high levels of frustration and/or physical aggression, she said. An integral part of the programme was to take them on walks or exercise in the school grounds and up and down the lane leading to the school.
She said that several traveller caravans had moved into the lane in August 1997, causing difficulties for school buses. Pupils also had difficulty with access and were subject to verbal abuse and name-calling from children living in the caravans. Dogs had chased or snapped at the pupils and the children playing around the caravans created a high level of noise.
The net result was very disturbing for the pupils, particularly those with sensorial and behavioural problems, Ms Jones said. Matters had deteriorated when some Travellers had started coming onto the school grounds and some of their children had used the playing pitches, meaning the pupils could not.
She added that school staff were intimidated on a regular basis.
Eventually, she said, the school buses had refused to travel down the lane to the school and some pupils had stopped attending. The calm and peace which was an absolute necessity for the school was shattered.
Ms Jones said the first the school knew of the proposal to build the halting site was when machinery moved in.
Travellers are entitled to be accommodated, she said, but the council was obliged properly to evaluate locations for such sites. She argued that it was not open to the council to select any site regardless of the consequences for adjoining property owners.
She further argued that the council had ignored the Ennis Town Plan, the Clare County Development Plan and the Programme for Travellers in deciding on the location.