The High Court has ordered that more than 100 caravans, some of which had been parked on the Curragh Plains in Co Kildare, and then moved on to State land in Co Laois, should leave “forthwith”.Judge Siobhan Stack made the order on Friday following the arrival on June 22nd of the first of the caravans at the 426-acre Great Heath of Maryborough, Portlaoise, opposite the Heath GAA club. A large marquee was also erected.The land is owned by the Minister for Public Expenditure, who obtained interim injunctions on Tuesday requiring “persons unknown” and 11 named people to leave.On Friday, when the case returned, Dylan West, barrister for the Minister, said none of the defendants had turned up in court and he was seeking that Tuesday’s order be made an interlocutory order that will remain in place until the case is fully dealt with. The land is largely unenclosed and the Minister says it is one of the few surviving semi-natural grasslands in Ireland, supporting diverse plant and animal communities. Portable toilets and skips were reported by the local council as being delivered to the land and there were no facilities for processing litter and waste.The Office of Public Work’s biodiversity officer indicated that the activity posed a significant adverse risk to the integrity of the ancient and rare grassland habitat.The judge also granted an order restraining the defendants from entering the land again.She gave liberty to the defendants to bring an application to challenge the order with two days’ notice to the Minister.