One of the Romanian families living in an encampment on a roundabout near Ballymun on the M50 motorway has brought a High Court challenge to efforts by the Minister for Justice to have them removed from the State.
Radu and Mariora Rostas and their nine year old child Dana were granted leave today to bring judicial review proceedings against the Minister after he initiated removal proceedings against them.
They are also challenging a requirement for them to sign on daily at a Garda station, on grounds such a condition is an "unnecessary and disproportionate interference" with their rights to reside in the State.
Today, Mr Paul Burns SC, for the family, said the Minister served a notice on those living in the camp last weekend. As part of the conditions of the Minister's notice, his clients were required to sign on daily at Ballymun Garda Station. Counsel argued that the Minister was obliged to consider the individual circumstances of each of the individuals but had failed to do so.
This failure breached the Rostas rights as EU citizens and they wanted the Minister's notice of intention to serve them with a removal order set aside. Counsel said that his clients had only arrived in Ireland from Romania on July 19th last, and were served with the notice on July 21st. His clients had come to Ireland in search of work and as EU citizens were entitled to freedom of movement, he said.
The Minister, counsel said, had issued the notice on grounds of public policy because the applicants were living in a camp which had no planning permission, no proper sanitary conditions and were a hazard to both themselves and their children, as well as being a danger to traffic.
Leave to seek judicial review was granted by Mr Justice Michael Peart and he returned the matter to Friday next.
The judge also granted leave to another Romanian national at the M50 encampment, also named Mariora Rostas, to bring proceedings against the HSE in which she is seeking family support services for herself and her six month old baby.
Their child was placed in temporary care for a few days but the HSE application for a care order was subsequently withdrawn.