The Irish Traveller Movement Independent Law Centre was established in June 2009. Susan Fay is the managing solicitor of the Law Centre. The ITM Law Centre provides a specialist legal service to Travellers in Ireland and is the only one of its kind in the country. The Law Centre pursues strategic cases in line with the core issues of the Irish Traveller Movement namely, (Accommodation, Equality and Human Rights, Education, Access to Services and Ethnicity) and is open to the referral of cases of this nature.
The Irish Traveller Movement Independent Law Centre recently won a case before the Private Residential Tenancies Tribunal in relation to an unlawful eviction from a RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) dwelling with an award of €8,000 for the claimant.
The case involved a Traveller woman who left her property to attend a family event with her four children, one of whom suffers from chronic ill health. When she returned after being away for a period of a number of weeks, the locks on her house had been changed by her landlord. She was unable to gain access to the property, causing her great distress. The Gardai were called to the property and the woman was extremely embarrassed as a result of the incident. The woman contacted the Landlord who advised her that a Council official had instructed him to enter the property and change the locks, despite the fact that no Notice of Termination had been served and the tenant was fully compliant with the terms of her tenancy. The official in the housing authority indicated that he had changed the locks on the property to “provoke a response”. The Tribunal report described the Council official’s actions as “gravely ill advised, totally inappropriate and unprofessional”.
The Irish Traveller Movement has noted a number of incidents of confusion in relation to the applicability of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (2004 Act) to tenancies under the RAS scheme. We would remind landlords, tenants and local authorities that RAS tenancies are governed by the 2004 Act.
The lack of availability of Traveller specific local authority accommodation is a growing problem with many Travellers being given no option but to live in standard housing. Many local authorities house Travellers in RAS type accommodation, with the Department of Environment Annual Count figures from November 2012 showing that 212 Traveller families are accommodated through the RAS Scheme.
This judgment will be available on the Private Residential Tenancies Tribunal website in due course.