This article is from page 19 of the 2008-09-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
RESIDENTS of an estate on Lough Derg are to take legal advice today on whether they can appeal a judge’s decision to uphold the rights of a family of Travellers to move into a house bought for them by the local authority.
The family at the centre of the row have spoken for the first time of their distress over some locals’ reaction.
Residents of Cullinagh at Ballina have mounted a_ round-the-clock protest outside the house since Tip- perary County Council bought it to accommodate a family of ten Travel- lers at a cost of €465,000.
The O’Reilly family have been living in the lakeside town for nine years in a number of caravans, a short distance from the property.
Last night, Tony O’Malley, solici- tor for the O’Reilly family said the family are “very upset. They have been under a lot of pressure because of this. They are a family which has lived here peacefully for more than ten years. They have helped with community events, their children are going to school in the area. All they want to do is to continue to live peacefully in the community into which they have become integrat- ed.”
The residents were due to take le- gal advice on an appeal last night, but were instead meeting to discuss a development yesterday afternoon in which housing staff from the council arrived escorted by gardai to enter the house.
“They had a lock smith with them and I think they changed the locks,” said Paddy Collins, spokesman for the protesting residents.
Last week, High Court Judge Mr Peter Justice Charleton ruled against the residents application for an in- junction to stop the local authority entering into a tenancy agreement with the family for the house on the grounds that members of the Travel- ler community have the same rights to be housed as anyone else.
The locals are objecting to the house being bought for the family because, they say, the council went outside it’s normal procedures to make the purchase.
“They are supposed to keep with- in a certain budget and they didn’t. This is taxpayers’ money. They are supposed to keep within the social housing scheme to house people but they went right outside of that in this case’, said Mr Collins.
“We would be raising the same objections no matter who this house was bought for,’ he added.