SOUTH Dublin County Council was restrained in the High Court yesterday from moving a number of traveller families to halting sites at Bawnogue, Deansrath and Clondalkin, because of the inadequacy of services there.
The travellers had taken an action against council notices served on them which required them to move to the halting sites.
Giving judgment, Miss Justice Laffoy said she was satisfied that by reason of the physical condition and the inadequacy of the services at the bays at Bawnogue halting site, the families' temporary dwellings could not have been appropriately accommodated there. Therefore, the council was not entitled to serve the notices or take action on foot of them.
She made an order directing the council to ascertain the accommodation requirements of the families and to assess their eligibility for accommodation provided by the council as soon as possible.
She also made an order restraining the council from taking any action against the families on foot of the notices to move.
The judge said four of the families were living in another temporary site at Lynch's Lane, Clondalkin while another was living in an open space at Lower Dodder Road.
She said that on the evidence she was satisfied the council was currently taking steps to fulfil its statutory obligations under the Housing Acts to the members of the traveller community.
It was not the function of the court to direct a local authority as to how it should deploy its resources or the manner in which it should prioritise its various statutory functions.
The fund ions of the housing authority must be performed in a rational and reasonable manner. This must involve the adoption of a coherent and fair system of allocating halting site units to people who had been included in the most recent assessment or who will be included in the next.
The council met traveller accommodation needs by allocating standard housing and providing and allocating group housing and halting sites. Its current priority was to implement the remaining element of its five year programme, which dated from 1991. Implementation of proposals in respect of four schemes to accommodate 30 families was in train and would cost £2 million.
The council Was also upgrading the halting site at Lynch's Lane at a cost of £682,000. Proposals had been approved by the Department of the Environment for a major redevelopment of the Bawnogue halting site. This would involve subdividing the site into six self contained sites with a range of facilities.
The scheme, which is estimated to cost £2.7 million, would be completed by June 1997.