Athlone councillors seek fundraising help for High Court bid to block refugee accommodation
The five Athlone-area members of Westmeath County Council have today (Thursday) announced that they are taking an independent High Court action in an effort to block the development of temporary accommodation for 1,000 male asylum seekers in the town.
The legal action seeks to halt the ongoing site work, which is being carried out on behalf of the Government in Lissywollen, on environmental grounds.
And to pay for it the councillors are seeking donations from the public through a 'Go Fund Me' page with a fundraising target of €100,000.
Earlier this afternoon, Councillors John Dolan, Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, Aengus O'Rourke and Paul Hogan attended a press briefing on their legal case at the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, while Athlone Mayor Frankie Keena sent his apologies as he was unable to attend.
A statement read out on behalf of the five councillors by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke outlined how they had instructed their legal team to lodge papers today with the High Court to commence a judicial review of the Section 181 order issued by Minister Roderic O'Gorman to commence the development of the new accommodation in Athlone.
Cllr O'Rourke indicated that the legal team acting on behalf of the councillors would also apply for interlocutory injunctive relief, as part of the judicial review process, in order to "finally bring the works on site to a stop".
He also said that the councillors' legal team had been in correspondence with Minister O'Gorman "insisting that he immediately stops the works at Lissywollen, given that his section 181 Order is unlawful," but that the Minister had missed two deadlines which they had given for stopping the work on site.
"On each of these two deadlines the Minister, through the Chief State Solicitor, Maria Browne, wrote to us asking for more time to consider the extensive details in our original correspondence to him.
"The situation is now too serious for us to allow the Minister any more time, he has had ample time," remarked the statement read out by Cllr O'Rourke.
"Work is happening at pace at the Lissywollen site, and we are determined to stop it."
The statement said that, while the five Athlone councillors were united in taking this action, one of them had to be chosen to be the plaintiff in the legal case, and that would be Paul Hogan.
"But the five of us are taking this case. We are taking it as one tight, coherent and determined group, as citizens of this town.
"We are determined to see the IPAS proposal stopped and we are confident that we will win our case."
The councillors noted that legal actions such as this are expensive and that they were launching their Go Fund Me page to pay for "the legal costs associated with this case, including any professional environmental reports that may be necessary to meet our objective."
"Any donations, large or small, will be very much appreciated," said the councillors, who added that any surplus funds raised would be distributed to six local charities: Pieta House, South Westmeath Hospice, Esker House Women's Refuge, Athlone Meals on Wheels, Athlone St Vincent De Paul, and Athlone Irish Wheelchair Association.
* More on this story here: WATCH - Athlone councillors announce High Court action over refugee centre