The High Court has rejected Thomas Reid’s challenge to planning permission for modifications at Intel’s manufacturing campus in Co Kildare, but declared that An Bord Pleanála breached publication requirements by failing to make its order available online for the required period.
In a judgment delivered on 24 January 2024, Mr Justice Humphreys dismissed the proceedings apart from that declaration. The case concerned permission granted in November 2020 for changes to roof ducting, including increases of between three and six metres in building height, service platforms and changes to silane storage arrangements.
Reid argued, among other things, that the board had failed to assess effects on protected European sites, had not properly screened the project for environmental impact assessment, and had failed to notify him of its decision. He also sought declarations concerning the compatibility of planning regulations with EU law.
The judge rejected the challenge to the permission. He found that the board could adopt the inspector’s report, which concluded that the development was not likely to have significant effects on the River Rye Water / Carton SAC or other European sites. He also found that the proposed works did not fall within the relevant EU environmental assessment categories for chemical storage facilities or industrial estate development projects.
On notification, the board’s records showed that a letter was generated and issued to Reid on 1 December 2020. Reid said he did not receive it. The judge held that non-receipt alone did not establish that the letter had not been sent, and accepted the board’s unchallenged evidence.
The board order itself was not published online until 28 July 2022, despite the board being told about the omission in February 2021. The inspector’s report and board direction had been published. The court declared that the board contravened sections 146(5)(b) and 146(7)(b) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 by failing to make the order available from 3 December 2020 to 28 July 2021. The declaration did not quash the permission.
The court also dismissed the proceedings against the State. Its order proposed costs for Reid against the board, limited to costs that would have been incurred had he confined the case to the publication issue on which he succeeded. That proposed order was subject to any party making written submissions within 14 days; the matter was listed for 12 February 2024 to confirm the order or arrange a hearing on such submissions.