The High Court has ruled that Limerick County Council has breached its statutory duties under the Housing Acts by failing to provide halting site accommodation for two Traveller families.
In a judgment with important implications for how local authorities deal with Travellers' housing needs, Mr Justice John MacMenamin found yesterday that the council has a mandatory duty under the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 to provide halting sites for Travellers where halting site accommodation is the type of accommodation sought.
The council had a statutory obligation to specify what accommodation would be provided to address the "needs" of people such as the two Traveller families, he found. That obligation was not "a mere formulaic statement", nor was the duty imposed on the council "merely aspirational."
The council was not entitled to identify "long-term, unperformed and unattained objectives or aspirations" as a reason for failing to implement short-term, feasible and attainable measures to comply with its duty under the Act, the judge said.
To pursue such a course was "to use an unachieved end to justify inaction on an achievable means."
The O'Reilly and the Conway families went to the High Court to stop the council evicting them from an unofficial site behind the mart at Tipperary Road, Deebert, Kilmallock, where they have been since December 2004. They also sought an order directing the council to provide alternative halting site accommodation in Kilmallock as the existing halting site was not available.
The O'Reilly family, a couple and three children, had been living in an apartment in Kilmallock but left after three months to live at the side of the road at Mill Road before moving to the site at Tipperary Road.
The Conways, who have two children, lived in a house in Kilmallock before joining the O'Reillys on the roadside and then moving to the Tipperary Road site.
Limerick County Council had claimed it had made all reasonable efforts to meet its statutory duties to members of the Travelling community and pleaded that the two families were seeking a halting site to accommodate themselves exclusively.
In his judgment, Mr Justice MacMenamin said the two families wish to be located in halting site accommodation and the current halting site in Kilmallock was not available to them. There were no plans to build a further halting site in the Kilmallock area.
An objective of Limerick County Council's development plan was to support and develop housing for Travellers in an appropriate way through the Traveller Accommodation Programme, which specifically mentioned the two families involved, he noted.
The council had a statutory obligation to specify what accommodation would be provided to address the needs of people such as the two Traveller families, he said. However, there was no espoused intention or objective on the part of the county council to provide for an alternative site to the existing halting site at Kilmallock.
Section 7 of the 1998 Act must be interpreted with the "needs" of Travellers as the primary starting point, he said. It was in the context of those needs that a statutory duty devolved upon the council to specify precisely the provision of accommodation which was required to address those needs.
The duties imposed on a county council under the 1998 Act included the identification of needs, the specification of measures for the provision of accommodation and the provision of the range of accommodation required to meet those needs, Mr Justice MacMenamin continued. The council must have regard to the distinct needs and family circumstances of Travellers and their annual pattern of movement.
The Limerick County Development Plan did not include any objectives for the use of particular areas for the provision of Traveller accommodation, he said. This was a breach of its mandatory duties.
Mr Justice MacMenamin said it was neither rational nor fair, nor in compliance with the Act, for the council to suspend delivery of the immediate and urgent accommodation needs of the two families.