DUBLIN CITY Council has sought a High Court order requiring a Traveller family to leave a development site at the junction of the M1 motorway in Dublin where they are camped.
Members of the Gavin family last February moved about 30 caravans on to a 42-acre development site at the junction of the M1 and Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock and later brought in scrap metal and old cars, the court was told yesterday.
The council wants an injunction preventing further trespass by the family.
It says they have been offered alternative accommodation at a site at St Dominick's Park, Belcamp, where they had lived for 25 years before they claimed they were violently forced out during a feud with another Traveller family, the McDonoughs.
The court heard yesterday the Gavins had refused to move back to St Dominick's unless they were given guarantees they would be provided with security or policing to ensure their safety.
The court also heard they want the council to upgrade St Dominick's from a halting site to a group housing scheme.
The family moved out in February 2005, following alleged attacks upon them by the McDonoughs, who live nearby.
The Gavins moved temporarily to a derelict site in Belfast but returned to Dublin in November 2005 when they unlawfully occupied a site at Lusk owned by Fingal County Council.
A High Court order was obtained in December 2007, requiring them to leave that site and they moved to the M1 site.
Conleth Bradley SC, for the city council, said yesterday that the local authority could not provide the guarantees of safety the Gavins were demanding before they would return to St Dominick's Park.
However, the council was prepared to make St Dominick's ready, even on a temporary basis, but the Gavins had refused to accept it.
The family were "effectively arguing for a veto over where they should go", Mr Bradley said.
The Gavins were seeking to reignite issues in relation to their rights under the Traveller Accommodation Programme with which the High Court had already dealt with, he added.
The court had previously ruled that there was insufficient evidence that a promise or undertaking was given to the family that they would be provided with group housing accommodation at St Dominick's Park.
John O'Donnell SC, for the Gavins, said they denied they were in illegal occupation of the lands. He said the alternative being offered was unsuitable and did not amount to a proper discharge of the local authority's statutory obligations towards them.
The case continues before Mr Justice Michael Peart.