TRAVELLER families squatting in unoccupied local authority houses are costing Kerry County Council tens of thousands in damage repairs, legal fees and delays, The Kerryman learnt this week.

A nine months pregnant Traveller who is currently illegally squatting in Castleisland with her family has vowed that they will lock out garda? or Kerry County Council officials if they attempt to evict them.

Kathleen Quilligan?s defiance came as the Council prepared to take legal action over the latest example of what a senior official described as ?an epidemic? of squatting by Travellers in Castleisland over the past few months.

The situation has already cost ratepayers more than ?20,000 and is being linked by Traveller Liaison Officer Dan O?Leary to the imminent opening of a new 50 house development in the North Kerry town.

According to Mr O?Leary, there is a very obvious reason why there has been so much squatting in Castleisland recently.

?We have about 50 new houses coming on stream at the rear of St Stephen?s Park soon and what is happening is that people are leaving their caravans and squatting in the hope that we?ll offer them one of these properties as the easiest way of getting rid of them.

?However, under no circumstances will this happen,? he insisted.

Mrs Quilligan, her husband Michael and their one year old baby, also called Michael, moved into the house in Cahereens West 10 days ago after, they claim, their caravan began to leak.

According to Mrs Quilligan, the house had previously been squatted in by another family and had been damaged during this period, something denied by Mr O?Leary.

?We had nowhere else to go and we got into this house by a broken window.

?We didn?t break any of the windows or doors, they were broken already by a family who were squatting here before us,? Mrs Quilligan, who is due to give birth in a week, told The Kerryman.

Should the Council take legal action to evict the family, Mrs Quilligan said that she and her husband will ?take no heed of them?.

Asked what would happen if Council officials or the Garda? should try to forcibly evict them, she replied that they would ?lock them out?.

?We won?t leave here until they offer us a place of our own. We won?t move out otherwise,? Mrs Quilligan added.

On Monday, the Council repossessed two houses which were being illegally occupied, but as with all previous cases, they have been so badly damaged that some ?3,000 worth of repairs will be necessary before they can be handed over to their rightful tenants.

A spokesman for Castleisland Garda Station said that Garda? are investigating complaints of criminal damage and illegal trespass at several of the houses which have been squatted in and confirmed that files are expected to be sent to the DPP.

News Source: The Kerryman Newspaper