In June Paul Barry from Cappawhite had threatened to go on hunger strike if he was not allowed to operate a food stall in Dromineer – at the time he did not have the necessary casual trading licence.
Following discussions with the District Administrator in Nenagh a resolution was found.
However Mr Barry is now claiming he has been told that he has to remove the trailer from the pitch each day as per the local bye-laws which the council would have given him when he was issued the traders licence.
He says this simply isn’t possible as his wife can’t tow the unit and his work schedule means he is not available to do so.
“Why are they springing this on us? Why are they not working with us on this?
“I think it’s absolutely scandalous what’s going on here – I’m pure disgusted. We’re being bullied – every week they’re ringing us or they’re sending a letter out to us. The first letter was threatening to take the trailer away from there, the second letter is threatening to take our trading licence off us and the third letter that we received basically looking for the hours that we’ve done and the days we’ve been up there. We’ve been up there every day that it’s been dry.
“I didn’t know I had to answer to the County Council what days I work and what days I don’t work up there or my wife works up there.”
Paul says he would be putting lives at risk if he was to comply with Casual Trading Bye-Laws.
He works in Limerick while his wife runs the food stall on fine days in Dromineer.
The bye-laws state that the unit has to be removed from the site within 30 minutes after the trading hours end which Paul says his wife is not able to do.
He says for him to bring the trailer to Dromineer each morning, drive to work and then return to Dromineer to remove the food trailer is not possible.
“I can’t abide by them – if I pulled that trailer up and down the road that’d be me working 19 hours a day. How much do you think that’s going to increase my chance of having an accident on the road and killing somebody? That’s crazy – absolutely madness. It’s illegal anyway. Like I said when I got my trading licence we knew nothing about any of this.”
