Tesco is seeking a High Court injunction requiring a couple to remove horses on an eight-acre site it owns in Galway.
Martin and Kathleen Donovan, who live in a caravan on a halting site at Túr Uisce, Doughiska, Galway, have been keeping the horses, and using buildings as makeshift stables on the site at Briarhill Junction, Galway City, the court heard.
At a meeting with the couple last month, Tesco Ireland Ltd representatives were told they would get the horses off if they were “financially compensated” so that they could buy or rent new land to keep the animals. Tesco refused.
The Donovans also claimed they have been on the site for 15 years and could claim adverse possession (squatters rights). Tesco disputes this and say the claim is bound to fail.
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Galway City Council has also notified Tesco that it had to render the land “other than derelict” and the site had been placed on the derelict sites register. If works are not carried out, this could result in punitive levies and the possibility of a compulsory purchase order.
It has not been possible for Tesco’s contractors to access the land and do the necessary work due to safety concerns.
The court also heard that the Department of Agriculture also issued a notice requiring the horses to be removed. Inspectors arrived to see if the notice was being complied with, but the animals were returned to the site after the inspectors left.
Tesco has erected paladin fencing around the site boundary and secured the gates to the site with locks. However, these locks have been removed and new locks placed there, but not by Tesco.
Tesco wants to develop the site; part of it has been compulsorily purchased for the N6 Galway Ring Road project.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan, following a one-side-only application on behalf of Tesco, granted permission for service of the papers on the defendants at short notice.
He said a “plain English” notice should also be provided in the service notice and the defendants could be informed in this way, as well as through a phone number and email address Tesco has for one of them, that the case will return next week.
