McDonagh v. Clare County Council. Irish Supreme Court [31.01.2022]

Date of the decision: 31 January 2022

Country: Ireland

The Supreme Court in Ireland has overturned a decision to grant Clare County Council orders requiring members of the Traveller Community to vacate a site they had been residing at for several years. The council claimed that the McDonagh family were not only in unlawful occupation of what is a green field site but had also breached the 2000 Planning and Development Act by constructing unauthorised development. The council secured an injunction from the High Court requiring the McDonagh family to immediately vacate council-owned lands. However, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the McDonagh's appeal against their eviction and in a judgment earlier this year the court ruled that mandatory interlocutory injunction should not be allowed.

Factors that was considered in this case included the rights of a vulnerable minority group. One hundred years after the Irish State was formed the Irish Traveller community remains a vulnerable minority at the margins of society who have struggled for recognition of their cultural identity and way of life, particularly as it fits in with planning law and land use. The decision was also based on that if a mandatory interlocutory injunction were to be granted, the McDonaghs would have nowhere else to go without necessarily trespassing on the lands of another party. In their appeal, The McDonaghs raised the point that the council had failed in its obligation as a housing authority to offer them suitable accommodation. In addition, The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, friends of the Court, argued that Clare County Council failed in its statutory obligations to properly and proportionately assess the rights of a Traveller family before invoking planning laws to evict them from a site in the county.

The McDonagh v Clare County Council ruling from January 31st 2022[1] sets out that it is not enough for a Local Authority to evict Traveller families from public land without any thought of their accommodation needs and requirements. It is ultimately for a Council to convince the courts in any future cases that they have fulfilled their obligations, and for the Courts to assess the proportionality of the Council’s actions.