The High Court has refused John Morehart leave to bring judicial review proceedings challenging Monaghan County Council’s grant of planning permission for an expansion at Abbott Ireland’s facility in Co. Monaghan.
In a judgment delivered on 26 February 2024, Mr Justice Humphreys dismissed the leave application. He found that Morehart had not established substantial grounds to show he was unable to appeal the council’s decision. The court did not determine the underlying planning challenges.
The council granted permission on 1 February 2023 for development including additional warehouse, laboratory, office and staff capacity, a change of use to facilitate ingredient storage and blending, and associated works. An Taisce appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála on 28 February 2023. Morehart participated in that appeal as an observer, and it remained undecided when the High Court delivered judgment.
Morehart sought to challenge the council’s decision, arguing, among other things, that planning notice and application requirements had not been met, that environmental assessment and screening were deficient, and that the council had not properly considered effects on Bellamont Forest House and Dromore Lough and River. Those were pleaded grounds, not findings by the court in this judgment.
He said he and his family spent significant time outside Ireland and that he learned of the application after the period for making submissions had expired. He also alleged that the site notice was not legible from the public road. The judge found that the evidence did not establish substantial grounds to show a notice defect during the relevant five-week period or that Morehart was incapable of appealing. The judgment records that the council had inspected the notice and found it in order.
The court held that the statutory requirement to exhaust available appeal or administrative remedies includes remedies an applicant could have used but did not. It also found that participation as an observer in the existing board appeal was an available and substantially effective remedy. The judge said that points an appeal process could not address would not automatically be barred from a later judicial review.
The order dismisses leave to seek judicial review of the council’s decision. It does not decide the merits of the planning permission or the pending board appeal. The court directed that, unless a party applies otherwise by written legal submission within 14 days, the order be perfected on the basis of no order as to costs.