Yesterday, An Taisce was refused leave to appeal the judgement of the High Court in October on the Dingle Road. An Bord Pleanála had granted permission for the road in 2014 and An Taisce sought to judicially review the decision earlier this year.

Reacting to the judgement today Charles Stanley-Smith Spokesperson of An Taisce stated:

"This is not only a deeply disappointing decision - because of the iconic importance of the landscape on the Dingle peninsula and the visual impact of this proposed road development, but also in terms of the law and how this road project was handled by Kerry County Council and An Bord Pleanála in particular."

He continued:

“We believe that the Aarhus Convention and the EIA Directive require judicial review procedures to be fair, equitable and not prohibitively expensive. It is very disappointing that we will not be able to appeal the judge's finding to the contrary.

It is also very disappointing that we cannot appeal the Judge's finding that we are precluded from raising the issue of project splitting, even though this was addressed by both the Inspector and the Board after the period identified by the Judge as the time limit applicable to An Taisce. We believe that this approach is inconsistent with the right to a judicial review to consider the procedural and substantive legality of planning decisions subject to the Directive.

The case was being watched very closely by the European Commission who are already in the process of infringement proceedings against Ireland on a range of alleged breaches and failures in respect of how Ireland provides Access to Justice to review certain environmental cases. We expect this judgement and the earlier judgement to feature in infringement action by the Commission against Ireland and indeed also in front of the UN Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention who investigate alleged breaches of the Aarhus Convention."

ENDS

For further information, please call:
Ian Lumley, Heritage Officer, An Taisce. Tel +353 1 454 1786
Charles Stanley-Smith, Communications, An Taisce. Tel: +353 87 241 1995
email: [email protected]
An Taisce The National Trust for Ireland
www.antaisce.org