Caravans on Great Heath of Portlaoise must leave 'forthwith', Court orders

High Court Reporters

The High Court has ordered that more than 100 caravans, some of which had been parked on the Curragh Plains in Co Kildare, and then moved on to State lands in Co Laois, should leave "forthwith".

Judge Siobhan Stack made the order on Friday following the arrival on June 22nd last of the first of the caravans at the 426 acre Great Heath of Maryborough, Portlaoise, opposite the Heath GAA club.

A large marquee was also erected.

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 people to leave.

On Friday, when the case returned, Dylan West BL, for the minister, said none of the defendants had turned up 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 which support diverse plant and animal communities.

Portable toilets and skips were reported by the local council as having been delivered to the land, and there were no facilities for processing the litter and waste.

The OPW's Biodiversity Officer indicated that this activity posed a significant adverse risk to the integrity of this ancient and rare grassland habitat.

Judge Stack also granted an order restraining the defendants from entering the land again.

She gave liberty to the defendants to bring an application to challenge the order with two days notice to the minister.