LAST UPDATE | 1 Apr

A HOMELESS COUPLE who are sleeping in their car on the roads of Kildare are seeking emergency married accommodation from the county council, a High Court judge was told today.

Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy heard that the man and woman had each been offered separate individual hostel accommodation but had turned it down as unsuitable on the basis she was his carer because of health issues.

Colm O’Dwyer SC, who appeared with barrister Michael Kinsley for the couple, said they had been made homeless on 29 December last and had been led to believe Kildare County Council had no accommodation available for married couples. He said if they had children the situation would be different for them.

Judge Mulcahy was told that when the man was first offered individual accommodation he had not accepted it because he needed the care of his wife because of health conditions, including a lung infection as a result of having to sleep every night in their car which they parked in various places on the roads of Kildare.

He had also been worried about the safety of his wife and the dangers associated with her sleeping alone in the car as well as requiring her assistance as his carer. She had later been offered individual hostel accommodation but had turned it down on the need to be with her husband.

The couple, helped legally by free legal aid, brought an ex parte application seeking an order quashing the decision of council dated 29 December 2025 refusing to offer them emergency accommodation together as a married couple.

Both stated in written evidence they were members of the travelling community and had been involved in a first tenancy which ended because the landlord had sold the property. They claimed to have been forced out of a second tenancy when the landlord doubled the rent.

O’Dwyer said the couple did not want to be separated in different hostels and claimed the local authority had failed to have regard to the dependency of the man on his wife in light of his medical needs and her safety sleeping in car on her own.

He said the couple had for some time-shared accommodation at a Longford halting site with the man’s brother-in-law but they had to leave as their presence had been considered a breach of his tenancy agreement and he could himself have been threatened with eviction.

Judge Mulcahy said the council had offered them both accommodation and he felt the county council may wish to have information placed before the court.

“I feel the council should be put on notice of this application and I will give you leave to bring a new application before the court next Wednesday on notice to Kildare County Council,” Judge Mulcahy said.