Aer Rianta was yesterday granted a High Court order directing a number of Travellers to leave a roadside located within 300 metres of the main runway at Shannon Airport.
An interim order restraining trespass on the site was granted on Monday and returned to yesterday when Mr Tony O'Connor, for Aer Rianta, sought an interlocutory order.
Mr O'Connor said the Travellers were living in about 16 caravans on the margin of the Old Airport Road at Caherteige, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare. The site was close to the main runway at Shannon, and the Travellers' position constituted a danger to themselves and to aircraft.
The court heard a small number of caravans had moved on to the site on February 2nd, and this number had now increased to 16. Some of the Travellers had been asked to leave the area by gardai and airport police but had failed to do so.
In an affidavit, Mr Niall Maloney, property manager of the airport lands at Shannon Airport, said some 125 planes took off and landed daily at Shannon Airport. He was concerned that the nature of the site and the accumulation of rubbish would attract flocks of birds with consequent dangers for aircraft.
He was also concerned the lights in the caravan windows and of motor vehicles could distract pilots and possibly prevent the safe landing of aircraft.
In another affidavit, Mr Michael McNamara, secretary of Clare County Council, said none of the occupants of caravans parked at the site on February 11th last was indigenous to Co Clare, had not applied for accommodation in the county and was not on any housing list.
Mr McNamara said Clare County Council was obliged to adopt a five-year Traveller accommodation programme and had done so on February 14th. A permanent halting site was under construction in Shannon and should be completed by July this year.
Mr Justice Murphy granted an interlocutory order restraining the defendants and others with notice of the making of the order from remaining on the lands and directing them to vacate the lands and take with them their caravans, vehicles and all other things they had brought.