Latest hearing in Athlone IPAS High Court case set for tomorrow

The latest hearing in High Court action being taken by four Athlone councillors against the establishment of a temporary International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre in Athlone is due to be heard tomorrow, Friday.

The legal action on behalf of councillors Paul Hogan, Frankie Keena, Aengus O'Rourke and John Dolan began twelve months ago, challenging the State's decision to develop temporary accommodation for up to 1,000 male international protection applicants at the Lissywollen site.

An online fundraiser to help pay the councillors' legal costs has so far raised some €52,000 from more than 1,000 individual donations.

At an early stage in the case, the State conceded that the development was unauthorised but the matter has been adjourned on a number of occasions since.

When it was last in court, in September, Ms Justice Emily Farrell directed that the 32 international protection applicants who remained at the Athlone site at that stage should be moved to alternative accommodation before the case came to court again on November 7.

It's understood that all of the remaining residents of the site have been moved to alternative accommodation, and that some tented facilities which were used to provide services to residents at the centre have also been disassembled. The Department of Justice has not responded to media queries from the Westmeath Independent in relation to this.

Speaking to this newspaper last month, Cllr Paul Hogan said: "We, like everyone else, are an interested party in terms of seeing where it goes next.

"The fact of the matter is that the State has conceded it's an unauthorised development. We're aware that (the Government) are looking at legislation (to regularise the centre) but that’s a very complex process and we could be a number of years away from that at the moment.

"What is the message that the Government is sending out here in terms of unauthorised development? It should be that the law applies universally and not just to private individuals. It should apply to everyone across the board."

In early October, the Department of Justice said centres such as the one in Lissywollen remained an "essential" part of its plans and that it was 'prioritising' legislation to regularise the planning status of the Athlone centre for continued use.