Planning and Environment Court

Consideration is being given to the setting up of a users’ group for the Planning & Environment Court.  Expressions of interest are sought from stakeholders with an interest in participating in the group.  Terms of reference and participation are under consideration but it is anticipated that the primary purpose of the Group would be to keep procedures in the Court under review and apprise the Judge in Charge of the List of ways in which procedures can be improved.

The group would have at least one in person meeting per year and would meet more frequently to discuss texts in the event that rules or procedures were under active review.  Participants would be invited to join the Group based on a representative selection of the various stakeholders.  Those wishing to express an interest should therefore identify the primary category of stakeholders whose perspectives they hold or in the case of legal representatives, whose perspectives they most frequently represent (noting that some professional stakeholders will represent a diversity of opinions).

Submissions are also welcome from any interested parties on appropriate issues to be considered by the group and terms of reference etc.

Depending on the responses, the Group may be established on a pilot basis initially.

Expressions of interest or submissions on the working of such a Group should be sent to alisapasanen@courts.ie by 4 pm on Friday 6 December 2024.   

Expressions of interest are invited from any relevant stakeholder with an ongoing practical involvement in the procedures in the Court and a willingness to engage constructively with other stakeholders and the Court.  This may include parties where appropriate or any other relevant stakeholder and is not confined to legal practitioners.

In line with Practice Direction HC97, a list of some recurring cases and materials in the Planning & Environment Court of which the parties are deemed to be on notice, and which therefore need not be included in lists of authorities and may be referred to in judgments without being specifically cited, is now being made available for download at the end of the following Practice Direction 126 web-page.

Parties are also reminded that the court is separately required to take judicial notice (which means independently of the parties) of various relevant pieces of law, some of which are referred to in the list of materials.

Finally, the court has a general entitlement to reference materials in a judgment not specifically cited or included in published lists such as the present one, but if such separate material would change the result the court would otherwise arrive at, the parties would be given notice.  In the absence of such notice parties can assume that any such material reinforced rather than changed the result the court was otherwise minded to reach.

The Planning & Environment Court is a division of the High Court established by Practice Direction signed by President Barniville with effect from 11 December 2023.  The current Practice Direction is HC126.  Parties and practitioners should familiarise themselves with this Practice Direction.  The judge in charge of the Court is Judge Humphreys, and the other Judges assigned to the List as of November 2024 are Judges Holland and Farrell.

The purpose of the Court is to provide as efficient a processing as is consistent with justice of such planning and environmental cases, and related cases as specified above, as are assigned or admitted to the Planning and Environment List.

The specific goals of the List include:

1. to provide a specialised mechanism to process cases across a comprehensive definition of the planning and environment field, broadly defined, compliant with the Aarhus Convention, the EU law right to an effective remedy and other applicable domestic, European and international standards;
2. to provide effective and paperless access to justice for cases within the List and to provide their efficient, fair and equitable disposition;
3. to the extent requested by any party, to provide such certainty as can be achieved as to costs rules prior to the incurring of inter partes costs in the proceedings;
4. to maximise use of resources and minimise costs through case management, in order to minimise the need for or incidence of multiple interlocutory or interim applications and adjourned substantive hearings, and to take any other steps so that matters proceed expeditiously to hearing and, when at hearing, are expeditiously determined;
5. so far as resources permit, to provide hearing dates to all cases eligible for a List to Fix Dates (LFD) for a particular term, within the term to which the LFD relates;
6. to promote the general objective, through modularisation or otherwise, that issues as to the validity of laws or measures of general application are normally dealt with only if other domestic or EU law points are not determinative; and
7. to balance the demands on the judges assigned to the List so that the court can deliver judgments in a timely manner, and, insofar as possible, within a 2 month period during term from the date on which judgment is reserved.

The List encompasses the following categories of cases;

i. proceedings related to decisions or other acts and omissions involving any of the following EU legislation or any legislation amending or replacing them (or any EU legislation which was replaced by the following), including proceedings related to the adequacy of transposition of such EU legislation:

1. the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, 91/271/EEC; 
2. the Nitrates Directive, 91/676/EEC;
3. the Habitats Directive, 92/43/EEC;
4. the Aarhus Convention 1998 as an element of EU law;
5. the Water Framework Directive, 2000/60/EC;
6. the SEA Directive, 2001/42/EC;
7. the National Emissions Ceiling Directive, 2016/2284;
8. the Environmental Noise Directive, 2002/49/EC;
9. the Directive on access to information on the environment (AIE), 2003/4/EC;
10. the Environmental Liability Directive, 2004/35/EC;
11. the Bathing Water Directive, 2006/7/EC;
12. the Groundwater Directive, 2006/118/EC;
13. the Clean Air For Europe Directive, 2008/50/EC;
14. the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, 2008/56/EC;
15. the Waste Framework Directive, 2008/98/EC;
16. the Birds Directive, 2009/147/EC;
17. the Industrial Emissions Directive, 2010/75/EU;
18. the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive, 2011/92/EU as amended by 2014/52/EU;
19. the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, 2014/89/EU;
20. the Drinking Water Directive, (EU) 2020/2184;
21. any other EU directive, regulation or other instrument relating to land use, the marine environment, environmental aspects of agriculture and fisheries, water, species, habitats, climate, air, atmosphere, soil,  landscape, genetically modified organisms, archaeological, historic and cultural heritage or any other aspect of or otherwise relating to the environment; or

ii. proceedings related to decisions or other acts and omissions under any of the following legislation or any legislation amending or replacing them (or any legislation which was replaced by the following), including challenges to the validity of such legislation or the adequacy of transposition of EU law therein:

1. the Foreshore Act 1933;
2. the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977;
3. the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992;
4. the Roads Act 1993;
5. the Waste Management Act 1996;
6. the Planning and Development Act 2000;
7. the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 133 of 2007);
8. the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011;
9. the Forestry Act 2014;
10. the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015;
11. the Minerals Development Act 2017;
12. the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021;
13. statutory provisions referred to in section 4(4) of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 or any other legislation providing for the grant of development consent or environmental licensing, including non-exhaustively or legislation providing procedures for consent for infrastructure projects;
14. legislation regarding air pollution, dumping at sea, environmental aspects of fisheries, gas, national oil reserves, petroleum, sea pollution or wildlife;
15. any other legislation relating to land use, the marine environment, environmental aspects of agriculture and fisheries, water, species, habitats, climate, air, atmosphere, soil,  landscape, genetically modified organisms, archaeological, historic and cultural heritage or any other aspect of or otherwise relating to the environment; or
16. any other legislation giving effect to the directives referred to above or to international legal instruments relating to fields covered by the foregoing.

Requirements of the List

Legal practitioners and persons taking legal proceedings encompassed by the Planning and Environment List are directed to review the requirements of the list as set forth in Practice Direction 126. From time to time the Judge in charge of the List may issue guidance notes or bulletins with content relevant to the operation of the list. These notices will be published on this webpage or in Practice Direction 126.

Any person requesting access to a remote hearing otherwise than via a link supplied to parties and legal representatives should contact the List Registrar via environment@courts.ie.

A circulation list is maintained by the List Registrar. If you wish to be added to this circulation list then please contact environment@courts.ie.

Any matter for the direct attention of a judge of the Court should be emailed to that Judge’s judicial assistant.  Emails addresses are set out in the current page of the Legal Diary.