A JUDGE has warned a number of Traveller men and women they will face jail unless they remove unauthorised caravans from the site of a planned €31m roadway in Limerick.
Four defendants each pleaded guilty before Limerick District Court to failing to follow an enforcement order from Limerick City and County Council to remove their caravans from the site of the Limerick Northern Distributor Road at Coonagh Cross, Coonagh, County Limerick.
A fifth accused did not appear in court and the judge issued a bench warrant for their arrest.
The Council’s solicitor, Will Leahy, told the court that the local authority had spent €16,000 removing rubbish and other waste from around the illegal caravan camp over a number of weeks.
Judge Adrian Harris warned the four defendants that if they did not remove their caravans from the site, on or by the end of February 24, they would be jailed.
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Judge Harris said he would suspend the jail sentences for one year provided the four defendants vacate the site and not return with any other caravans.
The judge told the four defendants — Christina Faulkner, Lisa Crawford, Chloe Kennedy and her partner Patrick O’Halloran, all with addresses at The Caravan, Coonagh Cross, Coonagh, Limerick — that they would also be liable to pay a €500 bond to the State if they breached the conditions of the suspended sentence.
Judge Harris commended Joe Cahill, development inspector at Limerick City and County Council, as well as members of the Council’s Homeless Action Team, for trying to find emergency housing for the defendants and their families.
The maximum sentence the judge could have imposed on each of the four defendants was a fine of €5,000 and/or a month in prison.
Mr Leahy, for the Council, said it was “in the power of the Council to seize and remove the caravans” if they remained on the site.
Mr Cahill told the court that the Council’s enforcement notice was first served on the defendants on November 1, 2024, and again on January 1, 2025, “as the unauthorised caravans were still present, and the (owners) had not complied with the enforcement order”.
The court heard the Council has made offers of accommodation to some of those living at the site.
One of the defendants, Chloe Kennedy, told the court she was worried for her family as they had nowhere else to reside.
She said she had contacted five hotels in Limerick and four said they did not have rooms available, the fifth said it had online booking available only, but Ms Kennedy said her family did not have access to bank card facilities to be able to pay online.
“What will happen, as we are homeless, I understand about prison but I don’t not want to go there,” Ms Kennedy asked the court.
Judge Harris said he did not want to jail anyone but he would impose custodial sentences on the defendants if they did not comply with the order to remove the unauthorised caravans from the site.
“You have to be out by Monday, February 24th, because the Council has contractors coming onto the site,” Judge Harris warned the defendants.
Contract works are due to start on the site this week, with workers requiring a vacant site and no impediments to gaining entry and carrying out works.
Joe McDonald, of the Council’s Homeless Action Team, said the team would continue to engage with the defendants to try to provide them all with emergency accommodation.
