A Ballyshannon town commissioner said residents were already drawing up plans to block work on a halting site listed in an emergency plan for Traveller accommodation. The plan was unveiled by the Donegal county manager on Wednesday.
In the High Court yesterday, in a case adjourned from last November, Mr Justice O Caoimh said he wanted the Ballyshannon site and another one at Buncrana completed within three months.
The High Court case is the first of its kind to be taken and is aimed at forcing Donegal County Council to meet its obligations under the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998.
It is being taken by legal representatives on behalf of Traveller families living in a car park in Ballyshannon and on the shore front in Buncrana.
Donegal county manager Mr Michael McLoone said on Wednesday on the eve of the High Court hearing that he would use his emergency powers to provide temporary accommodation for about 80 families.
A High Court judgment in November left him with little choice but to do this and it is the first time a county manager will use his powers under the 1998 Act to go over the heads of local councillors.
In recent years county councillors have turned down a number of halting sites proposed by the county manager in different parts of Donegal.
It appears the issue will remain highly controversial despite Mr Justice O Caoimh saying yesterday the council will have to start work immediately to implement the emergency plan.
Ballyshannon town commissioner, Mr Phonsie Travers, who has made very controversial statements on the issue, said he believed the emergency plan would not solve the problem. Mr Travers said the plan had come "like a bolt out of the blue" and he believed residents had not been adequately consulted.
Mr Travers denied he was anti-Traveller and said he believed people had genuine concerns. He would not like to live beside three Traveller families. "Plans are already being made. If a digger moves in residents will attempt to block it," he said.
Meanwhile, the Traveller families living in the Market Yard car park in Ballyshannon will be allowed to stay until the council provides sites for them. In the past the county council has taken cases in the Circuit Court to get them to move.
There are two caravans in the Market Yard. Geraldine Ward, a 26-year-old mother of four children, aged four, three, two and one, lives in one of the caravans. She did not want to be put on a halting site longterm but wanted a house.
In the current freezing temperatures, the conditions she lives in are deplorable. Even the public toilet in the car park has been closed to ensure the Travellers cannot use it.
Ms Ward said her husband was born in Ballyshannon and felt they should be allowed to stay. They have been living in the town for most of the past 10 years and have been in the car park for the past three years.
Her husband's father lives in a house on the other side of town, and she sometimes has to go there to use the toilet if she can't get into the nearby public leisure centre.
"My hands are full with the kids, but what I want is a house - I don't want to be put on a halting site for years," she said.
The plan unveiled by Mr McLoone on Wednesday provides for emergency accommodation for 42 indigenous families on 13 sites around the county, in addition to more than 40 places for transient families on a further four sites.
Mr McLoone stressed that all the sites were temporary and not for permanent accommodation. He said work was to start immediately and the intention was to complete all works by the end of this year. It was expected that the emergency use of these sites would be required for a further two years until the end of 2003.
The process of carrying out the council's accommodation programme, which it was required to adopt under the legislation, would go ahead in tandem with these works, Mr McLoone said.
Speaking after yesterday's High Court hearing, Mr Peter Nolan, barrister acting for the Travellers, said he was satisfied with the outcome. He said he was pleased that the county manager was now in charge of this plan, unlike other ones produced by the council. The matter is due to come before the court again on May 25th when Mr Justice O Caoimh will receive a report from the council on its progress in implementing the emergency plan.