Some €25,000 donated in a day to Athlone councillors' legal fund
An online fundraiser to help meet the costs of a legal challenge being taken by five Athlone councillors against plans to establish temporary accommodation for 1,000 male asylum seekers in the town has raised almost €25,000 since it was launched yesterday (Thursday).
At the time of writing, at 5.15pm on Friday evening, the total raised on the councillors' GoFundMe page stood at €24,034.
There had been 579 donations made to the fund, mostly from individuals along with some from local companies.
Councillors John Dolan, Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, Aengus O'Rourke, Paul Hogan and Frankie Keena yesterday announced that they had instructed their legal team to lodge papers with the High Court to commence a judicial review of the Section 181 order issued by Minister Roderic O'Gorman for the development of the new accommodation in Athlone.
They also said their legal team would be applying for interlocutory injunctive relief, as part of the judicial review process, in order to "finally bring the works on site to a stop".
The legal challenge is being taken on environmental grounds, similar to a court challenge which has currently halted work on a development due to accommodate 1,000 asylum seekers at Thornton Hall in Dublin.