A JUDGE HAS refused to evict an eight month old baby, its parents and two siblings on to the street because Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council claimed they did not meet the criteria for the tenancy of a two-bed house in Co Dublin.
The decision of Judge James McCourt in the Circuit Civil Court today was met with applause by friends of the family in court and the agreement of People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett and Councillor Melisa Halpen who supported the family.
Dylan Mooney’s wife Gemma burst into tears following the judge’s decision to overturn an order of the District Court which had ordered her husband to hand back their home in St Kevin’s Villas, Sallynoggin, to the council.
Lorry driver Dylan told his counsel Sean Beatty that eviction would be devastating for the family leaving them with nowhere else to live and putting their eight month baby on the street.
Following the judge’s decision and refusal to grant the local authority its legal costs in opposing Mooney’s appeal, Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“I think this a right and just decision and prevents a family being made homeless. Clearly this was their family home.”
The judge heard that Mooney’s mother at the age of 57 had come home from hospital in the last week of her fight against cancer to die in the presence of her family in the St Kevin’s Villas where she had lived with her son, Dylan, from his birth.
“She was more comforting to us than we were to her,” Mooney said. “There is a very sentimental attachment of our family with the house.”
The court was told that in order for consideration of a new tenancy Mooney had to meet the council’s housing allocation policy whereby he had to have lived for five years in the house prior to his mother’s death or to have lived for at least 10 of the 15 years prior to her demise.
The council claimed he failed to meet all of the criteria, missing the 10 year requirement by a year and two months.
He had moved back into the house following his mother’s death and had been joined by his wife and two children.
The baby had been born following their move in without confirmation of any new tenancy.
The council described him to the court as a trespasser and had been granted a possession order in the District Court.
The judge told Beatty, who appeared with Daly Khurshid Solicitors, that he was satisfied Mooney had lived in the house for the required amount of time to satisfy the council’s house allocation criteria.
He had lived in the property for eight years and 10 months as an adult and for more than the alleged shortfall of 14 months as a minor.
“It is accepted by the council that Mr Mooney had been included in the rent assessment for his mother which is a significant factor,” the judge said.
“I have enormous sympathy with any housing authority in trying to distribute meagre supplies of houses to satisfy the overwhelming demand. It is akin to the distribution of the five loaves and two fishes,” the judge said.
“There aren’t enough houses to go around and it is not the fault of local authorities. I don’t like to see anyone skipping a queue but I don’t accept that Mr Mooney was a trespasser.”
The judge said the question was whether it was proportionate and reasonable to grant what was essentially an eviction order and it was his view that it would be disproportionate and unreasonable in all of the circumstances.
He added that he would allow Mooney’s appeal but would not make an order for costs against the county council.
“These are difficult cases but the facts in this case are unique. I have a lot of sympathy for councils which have little or no houses and yet have to deal with a problem not of their making.
“It is all very unfortunate but I do not think any use would be served by making an eviction order,” the judge said.
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