Clare County Council served notice on Travellers yesterday in response to a plea for sanitary facilities to serve an illegal halting site on the council's proposed new €33 million headquarters.
With no permanent serviced halting site due to become operational in Ennis until early next year, the six Traveller families moved to the grounds after leaving Bishop Willie Walsh's front lawn last week.
The Travellers have moved the accommodation crisis in Clare to the doorstep of the council. After moving on to the grounds of the former psychiatric hospital, they issued an open letter this week to the county manager, Mr Alec Fleming, seeking sanitary and refuse facilities.
Instead, council officials served the Travellers with notices requiring them to move on and to comply with a High Court order obtained last January.
One of the Travellers, Mr Michael Mongans, said: "We will have to move. We don't know where we can go. The bishop might take us back in."
Mr Mongans disputed the council's claim that none of the families was from the Ennis area.