The High Court has dismissed a judicial review brought by the Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association against An Bord Pleanála’s approval of an expansion of Dublin’s Ringsend sewage treatment plant and a nine-kilometre outfall pipeline into Dublin Bay.
Mr Justice Charleton delivered judgment on 19 November 2013. The challenge concerned the Board’s 16 November 2012 decision to grant consent to Dublin City Council. The Association argued that the consent should be quashed because the Board had not accounted for the designation of the Rockabill to Dalkey area as a candidate special area of conservation, the State had failed to designate the area by an earlier deadline, the Board had not been told designation was imminent, and later consents could not adequately protect the site.
The court reviewed the designation process and the planning application record. It found that the proposed conservation area had been under consideration since 2010 and that the Minister’s approach to preparing designations without advance public announcements was supported by environmental protection concerns. The planning materials had also referred to a possible Dublin Bay designation, and the Association had raised environmental concerns in its submission and at the oral hearing. The judge rejected the suggestion that its concern for the environment was a pretence.
The court concluded that the Board’s planning consent authorised construction of the plant and pipeline, subject to conditions including safeguards for marine mammals. It did not authorise the discharge of treated sewage into the protected area. Before discharge could begin, the court said, a wastewater discharge licence and further assessment would be required from the Environmental Protection Agency. A foreshore licence would also require assessment of the pipeline’s environmental effects.
The judge held that the candidate site received protection under Irish law from the time of designation, without waiting for Commission approval. He found no unlawful conduct by Dublin City Council or the Minister and no excess or failure of jurisdiction by An Bord Pleanála. The judicial review application was dismissed.
Under the costs rule identified by the court, each party was to bear its own costs. The respondents and Dublin City Council did not seek costs against the Association.