The High Court has refused a dairy farmer leave to challenge Wexford County Council’s compulsory purchase of more than 21 hectares of his farmland for a South East Technological University campus and an inner relief road.
In a judgment delivered on 29 May 2025, Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan dismissed Scott Mernagh’s judicial review proceedings. The court found he had not met the statutory test for extending the time to challenge the Council’s January and June 2023 decisions. The application was filed in August 2024, well beyond the eight-week limit.
Mr Mernagh argued that the Council had acquired more land than was needed for the stated campus and road purposes, and that it might use some of the land for other projects, including sports facilities. The court said the evidence then available did not establish that another use was intended for his land. It described the material, which included media reports and partly redacted records obtained through freedom of information requests, as supporting a concern that might warrant further inquiry. For the purpose of considering leave, the judge was satisfied that substantial grounds had been identified, subject to the time and alternative-remedy issues.
The judge rejected the request to extend time. She found that the farmer had enough information to bring proceedings by December 2023, at the latest by early June 2024, but did not file until 12 August 2024. The court said the freedom of information process did not explain the delay: the farmer had not sought an internal review or appealed to the Information Commissioner, and the information received did not materially add to what he already knew. The further delay after June 2024 was also not adequately explained. The court found neither good and sufficient reason for the delay nor evidence that the circumstances causing it were outside his control.
Separately, the court held that Mr Mernagh could not challenge the Council’s January 2023 decision to make the order because he had not objected during the available process before An Bord Pleanála. The judge said that process could have addressed the land acquired, the order’s purpose, its impact on the farm and proportionality. There was no equivalent An Bord Pleanála remedy against the Council’s June 2023 confirmation decision, but that challenge was still out of time.
The court therefore refused leave and dismissed the proceedings. It did not determine the substantive challenge to the compulsory purchase order. The judge said the parties could address the form of the final order and any consequential matters.