The High Court has ordered that more than 100 caravans, some of which had been parked on the Curragh Plains in Co Kildare before moving on to State lands in Co Laois, must leave “forthwith.”
Judge Siobhan Stack made the order on Friday following the arrival on 22 June of the first of the caravans at the 426-acre Great Heath of Maryborough, Portlaoise, opposite the Heath GAA club, reports Breaking News.
A large marquee was also erected on the land.
The lands are owned by the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, who obtained interim injunctions on Tuesday requiring “persons unknown” and 11 named individuals to leave, reports Breaking News.
On Friday, when the case returned, Dylan West BL for the minister said none of the defendants had appeared in court and he was seeking that Tuesday’s order be made an interlocutory order which will remain in place until the case is fully dealt with.
The Heath lands are largely unenclosed and the minister says they are one of the few surviving semi-natural grasslands in Ireland, supporting diverse plant and animal communities, reports Breaking News.
Portable toilets and skips were reported by the local council as having been delivered to the land, with no facilities in place for processing litter and waste.
The OPW’s Biodiversity Officer indicated that this activity posed a significant adverse risk to the integrity of the ancient and rare grassland habitat, reports Breaking News.
Judge Stack also granted an order restraining the defendants from re-entering the land.
She gave liberty to the defendants to bring an application to challenge the order with two days’ notice to the minister, reports Breaking News.
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