The High Court has refused Friends of the Irish Environment’s application for leave to issue an attachment order against Roscommon County Council’s chief executive, finding that the council’s use of a later development consent did not clearly breach an earlier court order.
The application alleged that the council was undoing remediation required by a consent order made on 25 August 2021. That order quashed the council’s May decision authorising flood relief works at Lough Funshinagh and required remediation under an agreed plan. The plan included capping a section of pipeline already laid at the site.
The chief executive said the remediation works were substantially completed between 2 September and 18 October, with a minor trench still open because of adverse weather. The council later made an order dated 14 October under the Local Government Act 2001, purporting to authorise significantly scaled-back emergency works. Those works would use the pipeline and require removal of its end caps. The judgment said one cap had already been removed.
Friends of the Irish Environment argued that the pipe had to remain capped unless the court varied or discharged its order. The council and chief executive maintained that there had been no breach and said they would comply if the court interpreted the order otherwise.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons said contempt required an objectively clear breach: where reasonable doubt existed about whether the acts fell within an order, that doubt had to be resolved in favour of the person accused. He found the August order addressed the validity of the original consent and remediation of works already carried out. It did not rule out the council seeking a different form of development consent under another statutory regime.
The judge concluded that the council first complied with the remediation order and then put in place a fresh consent which, unless challenged in legal proceedings, was presumed valid. The August order did not require the council to return to court for permission to rely on that later administrative decision. The court did not determine whether the new consent was valid or whether the scaled-back project could lawfully proceed.
The application for leave to issue an attachment order was refused. The judge said Friends of the Irish Environment, or another person with sufficient interest, could bring separate proceedings to challenge the new consent. Any such proceedings would be case-managed, with applications returnable before him. The court deferred the question of costs for further submissions from counsel.