The High Court has refused five applicants permission to appeal an earlier ruling which rejected their challenge to planning approval for a renewable energy project involving Carrig Renewable Energy Limited.
Sheila Hoctor, Patrick Carney, John Dooley, Michael Mahon and Regina Hoctor had sought to challenge a decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála dated 30 June 2025. In a principal judgment delivered on 10 February 2026, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys dismissed their claim for certiorari, while granting declaratory relief on one separate ground.
The applicants then sought certification of three questions for appeal, principally concerning the extent to which planning permission could allow design flexibility in turbine height, hub height and blade diameter.
In his 20 March judgment, Mr Justice Humphreys held that the proposed questions did not properly arise from his earlier decision. He said the principal judgment had found that planning law did not prohibit reasonable design flexibility where that flexibility did not create a planning issue.
The judge rejected the premise that the earlier judgment had excused a proven breach of planning regulations as merely minor. He said no such breach had been established and that the applicants had not shown at the substantive hearing that the permitted flexibility was unreasonable.
The court also found that two of the proposed questions largely concerned applying established law to the particular facts rather than identifying pure questions of law. The issues were therefore not matters of exceptional public importance suitable for certification.
Mr Justice Humphreys further held that an appeal was not in the public interest, citing the statutory policy favouring finality in planning judicial review and the potential for further delay to renewable energy infrastructure.
The application for leave to appeal was dismissed. No costs order will arise from that application unless a leapfrog appeal to the Supreme Court is accepted, in which case the costs will follow that appeal.