State acknowledges councilor’s lawsuit over plan to tent 1,000 male asylum seekers in Athlone

The federal government has acknowledged a Excessive Court docket problem introduced by a neighborhood councilor in opposition to a plan to accommodate round 1,000 male asylum seekers in Athlone.

On the Excessive Court docket, Oisin Collins SC, for counsel Paul Hogan, advised Decide Richard Humphreys that “the case is recognised” by the Minister for Kids, Equalities, Incapacity and Younger Folks’s Affairs and that “the event might be unauthorized improvement”.

Ms Aoife Carroll SC, representing the State, stated the matter was attributable to be heard on Thursday this week however the matter might now be heard on the identical date.

Ms Carroll stated she would take directions from the minister on the matter earlier than Thursday.

In his problem, Mr Hogan, who acquired 4.8 per cent of the primary desire vote within the race for unbiased Eire in Longford-Westmeath on the latest common election, claimed the ministerial course of offering for the plan was unlawful , irrational and constituted a violation of due course of.

A fundraising web site, which has collected greater than €50,000 in donations, stated the problem was being launched on behalf of Mr Hogan and 4 different Athlone-based representatives, together with freshly re-elected unbiased TD Kevin “Boxer » Moran and councilors Frankie Keena and Aengus O. ‘Rourke of Fianna Fáil and John Dolan of Nice Gael.

Protests came about in Athlone in opposition to plans to develop navy tent lodging for 1,000 asylum seekers, in as much as 150 tents, on a web site behind an current direct provision heart in Lissywollen, Athlone. It had been proposed that the tents would finally get replaced by modular models.

Mr Hogan’s authorized papers have been based mostly on comparable grounds to these lately put ahead by a north Dublin group which received the annulment of a regulatory instrument which had opened the best way for 1,000 candidates for worldwide safety to a web site owned on the State close to Dublin Airport.

Absorption Minister Roderick O’Gorman disputed Mr Hogan’s case.

Mr Hogan sought an order suspending or rescinding the regulatory instrument adopted by the Minister for the Athlone web site.

The instrument confirmed that the mission didn’t want approval from An Bord Pleanála and famous that Mr O’Gorman was happy that two particular environmental assessments below EU legislation didn’t have to be carried out earlier than persevering with with the plan.

Mr Hogan claimed the minister had not adequately examined the mission for potential environmental impacts and didn’t have the experience to conduct such assessments. There have been additionally gaps in assessing wastewater wants and their results on visitors, Hogan stated.

He stated the occupiers could be free to maneuver round and would “inevitably trigger a major visitors threat and well being and security downside” adjoining to the location and alongside the highway.

In a sworn assertion, Mr Hogan stated native councilors have been knowledgeable of the federal government’s plan on October 7 and had “no prior session or communication” from the Ministry of Integration.

He argued that Athlone has an extended custom of offering lodging and assist to folks looking for worldwide safety, with one of many state’s first direct provision facilities having been constructed on the close by Lissywollen web site in 2001.

Mr Hogan argued that he and different members of Westmeath County Council believed the proposed improvement could be “detrimental to public well being” as native well being providers are already overburdened.