Council awaiting legal advice on blocking Athlone asylum seeker site work

Councillors in Athlone expect to receive legal advice this week on whether they can take out an injunction to stop the ongoing construction work on temporary accommodation for 1,000 male asylum seekers in the town.

At a meeting yesterday (Monday), Cllr Paul Hogan said there was an urgency to the matter, given the pace at which the new asylum seeker accommodation was being developed in Lissywollen.

"The work is flying out there," said Cllr Hogan. "It has picked up pace again, and unless there are immediate grounds for injunction proceedings out there, it's going to be too late."

At a special meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District last Wednesday, councillors took the unprecedented step of issuing an Order under Section 31 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1948, prohibiting the erection or retention of temporary dwellings on the lands at Lissywollen.

However, this order does not take effect immediately. The first step in the process of initiating it was to advertise it in a national newspaper, and the local authority did so in Monday's Irish Independent.

The advertisement states that the order prohibiting the erection or retention of the temporary dwellings had been issued on October 30. It also states that any person "aggrieved by this order" could apply within 14 days to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage seeking an annulment of the order.

The notice states that the order would come into force 30 days after publication of the notice, provided no application was made for its annulment. If an annulment application was made and not upheld by the Minister, the order would take effect within fourteen days of the Minister's decision.

In the meantime, the work on site has been continuing, leading to the councillors seeking legal advice on whether or not they can initiate injunction proceedings to halt it in the short term.

Yesterday, Athlone Mayor Cllr Frankie Keena said it was "important" that the local representatives were briefed on the legal advice very soon.

"This development is rapidly being put up, and I'd agree with Cllr Hogan - I feel that we should call another special meeting and invite the legal team here so that we can sit down and discuss it with them in committee," he said.

Acting Director of Services for the council Ambrose Clarke told the meeting on Monday that he expected that the legal advice to be issued shortly.

"I don't think it's going to take long because (the legal advisors) have been consulted already," said Mr Clarke.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was contacted for comment this week. In response, a spokesperson noted the issuing of the Section 31 order by Athlone area councillors.

"There are further procedural steps and timelines outlined within the legislation that must be complied with before the order comes into effect," said the spokesperson.

"During this period, there is no barrier to works continuing at the site and the Department is progressing with design and development of the accommodation centre."