Travellers’
financial windfall
Squatters’ rights have proved to be very valuable rights indeed
for a group of travellers living on derelict lands near the former Fingal
County Council tip-head in Dunsink.
In a recent report it has emerged that the council has paid over €5m
to seven traveller families to get possession of the lands they were
occupying and this figure is set to rise further when negotiations conclude
with two other groups still occupying the lands.
The council secured a compulsory purchase order for the lands in 1997.
The 40 acres involved form an integral part of an 800 acre area of land
including the former landfill site and Dunsink observatory which the
Council wants to redevelop for amenities purposes as well as providing
for some housing development. A land use study for the area, commissioned
by the council as part of the last county development plan review, is
due for completion this summer.
While most of the land, which includes part of the Tolka Valley, the
former land-fill and Elm Green is already in council or state ownership,
but the 40-acre site, formerly farm land, was privately owned by descendants
of the Forbes estate – now living in France.
A price for the purchase of this land was agreed with the estate but
this acquisition could not be completed because the travellers claimed
‘adverse possession’ or squatters rights to the areas they
were occupying.
It is understood that total cost of payments made to the traveller families
to date is approaching €5.5m.
Dunsink Lane has always been a major eyesore – both as a result
of the tip head and more latterly as a result of the activities of some
travellers living there. Indeed such was the level of criminality in
the area in 2004 that gardaí had the road closed to stop through
traffic in an attempt to control crime in the area. According to gardaí
at the time families living on the sites were involved in the sale of
illegal diesel, firearms and a range of counterfeit goods and forged
bank drafts.
As a result of the closing of the road, travellers retaliated by blocking
the N3 at Auburn roundabout causing major traffic disruption for a number
of days. The standoff between gardaí and travellers also lead
to vandalism at Elm Green golf course including the digging up of greens.
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