The High Court has directed the applicants in a judicial review concerning An Bord Pleanála’s decision on the Roscam Peninsula to prepare documents for a proposed reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The remaining hearing has been adjourned pending the CJEU’s decision.
In a judgment delivered on 14 July 2022, Mr Justice Humphreys set out the procedural steps needed before the reference. The court directed the applicants to lodge an electronic contents page and PDFs containing the pleadings with the List Registrar by 22 July, after agreeing their contents with the other parties. Any PDF larger than 30MB must be split into files no larger than that limit.
The papers are to include scanned copies of the signed, approved judgments and the order for reference. For this judgment, the court specified a scan of its signed substantive part alongside an electronic appendix that preserves clickable links. The Principal Registrar is to transmit the papers to the CJEU.
The judge said the order for reference itself would be dealt with in a separate judgment. The 14 July ruling did not decide the underlying planning challenge or the outstanding Aarhus Convention questions. The matter was listed for mention on 25 July to confirm compliance with the document directions.
The procedural ruling follows two earlier decisions in the same case. In April, the High Court refused the applicants’ request for a declaration that they were entitled to costs protection under section 50B of the Planning and Development Act 2000 or the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, and adjourned their interpretative points concerning the Aarhus Convention pending a proposed CJEU reference. In June, the court granted leave to appeal under section 50A(7) of the 2000 Act on issues under the 2011 Act. The July judgment said that appeal did not affect the proposed reference as matters stood.