Council in breach of disabled girl's rights
Tim Healy
A COUNTY council has been ordered to find better accommodation for a wheelchair-bound girl with cerebral palsy and her family after the High Court ruled the 15-year-old's human rights had been breached due to overcrowding.
The girl from the Traveller community lives with eight other family members in a two bedroom mobile home on a temporary halting site in Tallaght in "exceptional" overcrowded conditions, the court said.
Mr Justice John Edwards said he believed Ellen O'Donnell's human rights were being breached by being forced to live in conditions which were "unfit for human habitation''.
"What is the point of having a wheelchair-adapted mobile home if it is so crowded with people that the wheelchair bound occupant cannot move around?'' he asked.
But the judge was also strongly critical of the family's own failure to accept any maintenance responsibility for their mobile home.
After the decision was delivered by the court, Ellen O'Donnell said: "When I am sleeping in my bed at night I can feel the bed moving because of the mice."
Her mother, Mary O'Donnell, said the roof was also leaking on their mobile in the temporary halting site.
"The first time I got this caravan, that cooker door blew out. The bathroom, the kids were afraid of their lives even to go into even when the shower was working, with the mice and the rats. And the floor is gone in there," Mrs O'Donnell said.
Last night, Traveller representative group, Pavee Point, welcomed the decision as "significant".
"It is only the second time the High Court has ruled that the Irish authorities are in breach of conditions of the European Convention on Human Rights," Martin Collins from Pavee Point said.
"It is the first time the High Court has ruled in favour of Travellers under the convention."
Mr Mark de Blacam, counsel for the O'Donnell family said their mobile home was in a poor state of repair, overrun with mice and without a functioning toilet, shower or radiators.
The family claimed they were legally entitled to suitable, adequate and accessible caravan accommodation and sought an order requiring the council to provide them with an additional three bedroomed mobile home.
Among several claims, they contended Article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention imposed a positive obligation on the council to act in a manner which would enable persons with disabilities to enjoy, as far as possible, a normal private and family life.
The council claimed that the accommodation provided was in accordance with its Traveller Accommodation Programme and its resources.
Refusal
In his judgment, Mr Justice Edwards noted the family refused accommodation in Tallaght because Mr O'Donnell was unwilling to live in a house.
But the judge said he expected, as the council had outlined, that the family would be placed in permanent accommodation by the end of the year in a group housing scheme in Tallaght as had been sought by the family.
There was therefore no breach of the council's duty under the Housing Acts.
However, the council had accepted that the family were living in conditions "that are not just sub-standard but which are overcrowded and unfit for human habitation''.
While this represented hardship for the entire family, the greatest hardship was undoubtedly placed upon Ellen because of her cerebral palsy, the judge said.
- Tim Healy
