Fine Gael has demanded an apology from Laois County Council after local authority staff disrupted a meeting between a residents' group and party councillors to serve an injunction.
The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon during a meeting in Fine Gael's party rooms in the county council's office in Portlaoise between the councillors and the Ballymaddock/Rathmore residents' groups.
The residents have been protesting for the last month at the council's plan to house a Traveller family in a newly purchased five-bedroom house located in Ballymaddock.
Laois-Offaly TD Ms Olwyn Enright sharply criticised the council for serving the injunction during the meeting, where councillors had been trying to reach "a satisfactory resolution" of the problem.
"I regard this unwarranted intrusion to serve High Court proceedings on individual residents in the Fine Gael party rooms as a most serious affront to the independent democratic process.
"It is an invasion of the rights of elected public representatives to meet and discuss matters with the people they are elected to represent," said the Fine Gael deputy.
The local authority staff were accompanied by a number of gardaí during the serving of the injunction, which followed separate meetings earlier between residents and Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.
The residents are angry at the council's intention to house "without consultation with them" a Traveller family with seven children currently living in Portarlington.
Last night, Mr Tom Cushen of the Ballymaddock/Rathmore Residents' Group said residents were prepared to "allow" the family to live in the property, as long as Laois County Council guaranteed it would be allocated to a settled family if the Traveller family decided to leave it. News of the purchase of the house by the council emerged over a month ago and led to a number of public meetings in Stradbally, including one which attracted a crowd of nearly 180 people.
The serving of the injunction on Tuesday followed an earlier protest by the residents, who blockaded the house with trucks until forced to remove them in the face of legal action last month. Under the latest injunction, the residents are barred from blocking entry to the house or entering upon its property.
During a recent meeting, the Progressive Democrat Minister for State at the Department of Finance, Mr Tom Parlon of the PDs, and Fianna Fáil TDs Mr Seán Maloney and Mr Seán Fleming, opposed the residents' action.
