Woman stages eviction protest

A FAMILY was evicted from a house in Loughlinstown, Dublin yesterday after a woman spent more than six hours on a ladder in protest at the Dublin County Sheriff executing a possession order for her home.

A large contingent of gardaí set up barriers on access roads leading to the house at Gleanntan estate, off Loughlinstown Drive, and an ambulance was called after Ann Moore refused to dismount from the ladder placed against the front wall of the house.

Neighbours said Ms Moore had returned from a night shift in a nursing home where she is employed as a carer at about 8.15am yesterday to discover the sheriff and some council staff already in her home.

Her husband Christy and three children had left earlier when instructed to do so.

David Molloy, a nephew of Ms Moors said he had visited the house at 10am yesterday and his aunt had said she was determined to stay up the ladder as long as possible.

Gardaí later prevented people from going near the house.

Gleanntan is a leafy, well maintained estate of semi-detached and terraced homes developed about 20 years ago by the local authority.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said the council only resorted to evictions as a last resort and “when all possible alternatives have been exhausted”.

Local councillor Hugh Lewis said rent arrears were behind the eviction and he and fellow socialist councillor Richard Boyd Barrett had been negotiating with the council management to have a scheme of repayments accepted.

He said he had known the family for about eight years and the downturn in construction had affected the livelihood of some of the family.

Mr Lewis said rent arrears had built up, but since last October the family had been paying 150 per cent of their rent each month.

He said this was accompanied by regular lump sum payments.

However, he said the council had refused to negotiate and he believed the family was being used as an example to other families in arrears.

A group of about 60 neighbours came to support the family.