The High Court quashed South Dublin County Council’s decision not to grant Happy Agamah a priority transfer from his flat, finding the refusal irrational. The court urged the Council to facilitate a transfer but did not order one, make a further declaration or grant injunctive relief.
In a judgment delivered on 2 July 2015, Kearns P. said the Council had relied almost exclusively on a Garda report when deciding Agamah’s request. The Council was required to make its own assessment under its housing allocation scheme, the court found, and the Garda opinion could inform that assessment but could not determine it.
Agamah, a German citizen of Ghanaian origin who had lived in Ireland since 2008, had occupied a one-bedroom Council flat at Glenmore Green, Ballyboden, since 2010. He sought a transfer after reporting a series of incidents at the complex, including damage to his door in a 2012 hammer attack and a fire at the rear of his property in June 2014. He alleged that the incidents were targeted and racially motivated. The judgment records that another tenant was convicted over the hammer attack; it does not find that the fire was a racist attack.
After the fire, Agamah asked the Council for alternative accommodation. His GP wrote in support of an urgent transfer, saying he was too frightened to return home and was sleeping in his car. The Garda response said there was no evidence in the file to suggest a racist incident, while noting Agamah’s allegation of earlier racist abuse. The Council refused a priority transfer on 12 August 2014, advising him to continue living at the flat.
The Council argued that it had considered the request and that the information available, including the Garda report and its allocation scheme, supported refusal. Agamah argued that the Council had failed to consider medical and compassionate grounds and had delegated its decision to the Gardaí.
The court said documents disclosed in the proceedings showed a pattern of anti-social behaviour at the complex and that the two reported incidents were serious. It also found that the Council had not addressed the medical and compassionate grounds expressly mentioned in its scheme. The court noted that the Council had facilitated a priority transfer for the tenant convicted over the 2012 attack, while refusing one to Agamah, who had complained about the behaviour.
The ruling sets aside the 12 August 2014 refusal. The court expressed the wish that the Council facilitate a priority transfer, but left the decision without a mandatory order requiring alternative accommodation.