An extended Traveller family has brought a High Court challenge to the constitutionality of housing and public order laws which permit their caravan homes to be forcibly removed from lands within 24 hours and for them to be prosecuted for bringing caravans on to lands.
The Gavin family of some 29 adults and 42 children claims such provisions discriminate against Travellers in their access to housing compared with settled people and effectively "criminalise" Travellers' access to housing.
Some 10 men in the family have been charged with criminal offences for failing to comply with notices requiring them to remove, within 24 hours, their caravans from lands owned by Fingal County Council, near Lusk, Co Dublin.
Mr Martin Gavin, one of the applicants, said the extended family had lived for years on the St Dominick's halting site in north Dublin and were accepted by the local community.
However, tensions had developed with some families on an adjoining site which culminated in fighting around Christmas 2004. Gardaí had tried to protect them but they had to flee Dublin by February 2005, he said.
They moved to Belfast for a time but installed themselves on a vacant site in Lusk on November 29th, 2005, and on November 30th, notices were posted requiring each dwelling be removed within 24 hours on grounds that the Travellers' occupation of the site interfered with adjoining landowners.
Mr Gavin said the family contacted solicitors and sought time to deal with the situation. Offers of alternative accommodation had been made by the council but these were inadequate.
Leave was granted this week to the family to bring their judicial review challenge against Fingal County Council, the Garda Commissioner, the DPP, Ireland and the Attorney General.
