Council will ask court to jail Travellers for occupying site

Clare County Council is seeking the jailing of a number of Travellers it claims are in contempt of a High Court order by occupying the grounds of its proposed new €33 million headquarters in Ennis.

Last month, 16 homeless Traveller families - a number of whom had remained on the lawn of the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, last summer - moved onto the site of Our Lady's Psychiatric Hospital in Ennis, the site of the proposed council headquarters, and were quickly served with an ultimatum by the council to move on.

The council stated that the families were within a one-mile exclusion zone of a temporary emergency halting site as set down by the High Court and that they were in contempt of the order.

In response, the Travellers stated they would not move and issued a solicitor's letter to the council holding the local authority responsible for the situation due to its failure to provide proper accommodation for the families.

However, the Travellers' solicitor, Mr Kevin Brophy, confirmed the council yesterday served him with a notice that it intends to seek in the High Court next Monday a committal to prison for a number of the Travellers due to their continued presence within the one-mile exclusion zone.

He said yesterday: "I am absolutely horrified and astonished that the council is taking this action." "I had written to them to say that emergency accommodation for the Travellers in a large field with a tap and toilets would be sufficient while the council develops proper Traveller accommodation.

"This action does nothing to solve the issue, but it doesn't surprise me."

A spokeswoman for the council said last night that it does not have emergency sites at the moment, but added it is continuing working on its Traveller Accommodation Programme, pointing out that work on two sites is ongoing, and that planning permission has been secured for two more accommodation units.

She said that the Traveller caravans are parked on council property and are in contempt of a High Court order disallowing any Traveller caravans to be parked within a mile of the council's temporary halting site, which is currently full.

She said: "The council gave an undertaking to local residents that the exclusion order would be enforced and we are honouring that."

In all, there are 16 families on site. A survey of the families shows that of the 27 children on site, 21 are under the age of six, with the rest are between the ages of six and 14. A number of babies are due over the next few months.

One of the Travellers, Mr Jim Mongans, said yesterday that the Travellers have no place to go and would remain at the site.

He said: "We are in nobody's way here and we feel very bad about what the council is trying to do."

The council is already spending in excess of €2,000 per week in security and maintenance of Our Lady's, which it took over in April, although the council is not expected to establish its headquarters there until 2005 at the earliest.

In a separate move this week, Mr Brophy started High Court proceedings relating to 30 homeless Traveller families in Co Clare, seeking to compel the council to provide proper accommodation for them.