The High Court has ruled that Limerick County Council is in breach of its statutory duties because it has failed to provide halting site accommodation for two Traveller families.
Mr Justice John MacMenamin found today the council has a mandatory duty under the Housing (Traveller Accomodation) Act of 1998 to provide halting sites for Travellers when they sought them.
He found the council had a statutory obligation to specify what accommodation would be provided to address the "needs" of people such as the two Traveller families, he found.
The two families, the O'Reillys and the Conways, went to the High Court to stop the council evicting them from an unofficial site off the Tipperary Road, Deebert, Kilmallock, where they have been since December 2004.
They also sought a court order directing the Council to provide alternative halting site accommodation in Kilmallock as the existing halting site is not available.
The O'Reilly family, a couple and three children, had been living in an apartment in Kilmallock but left after three months to live at the side of the road at Mill Road before moving to the site at Tipperary Road.
The Conways, who have two children, lived at a house in Kilmallock before joining the O'Reillys on the roadside and then moving to the same site.
Limerick County Council had claimed it had made all reasonable efforts to meet its statutory duties to members of the Travelling community and pleaded that the two families were seeking a halting site to accommodate themselves exclusively.
In his judgment, Mr Justice MacMenamin said the two families wished to be located in halting site accommodation and the current halting site in Kilmallock is not available to them. In addition, there were no plans to build a further halting site in the area.
Therefore, the council was in breach of its duties, he found.