High Court refuses farmer’s bid for costs protection in Greenway CPO challenge

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The High Court has refused Oliver Joyce’s application for costs protection in his judicial review challenge to the compulsory purchase order for the Connemara Greenway. The court ruled that the Commission’s decision to affirm the order was neither a development consent nor part of a multi-stage development consent process.

Joyce argues that the scheme subject to the CPO differs from the 2013 planning consent, which he says relied on permissive access rather than compulsory acquisition. He contends the change affects land division and fencing arrangements and that fresh environmental assessment was required. The substantive judicial review remains pending; the judgment records that opposition papers had not yet been filed.