The High Court has set aside the permission granted to Patrick McGreal to bring a judicial review challenging regulations that allow certain buildings to be used temporarily to accommodate displaced people and people seeking international protection.
In a judgment delivered on 6 December 2024, Humphreys J. found that the proceedings were an abstract challenge to the regulations, without facts relating to a specific development or showing how the rules affected McGreal. The court said a challenge to a measure of general application must be linked to a specific application of that measure, and brought within the relevant time limit.
The regulations, made in 2023 under the Planning and Development Act 2000, allow specified types of buildings to be used temporarily for accommodation, subject to conditions. These include notifying the relevant local authority before the change of use begins, and ending the use for people seeking international protection no later than 31 December 2028.
McGreal argued that the regulations breached planning legislation and constitutional provisions, including those concerning community services, consultation and the powers of the Oireachtas. The court found most of the pleaded grounds were not arguable as presented. It said, for example, that the cited statutory consultation procedures did not apply to exempted development regulations, and that Article 45 of the Constitution was not a justiciable basis for the challenge.
However, the judge considered there was a potentially arguable point about whether the ministerial conclusion that the developments would have limited effects on their surroundings was reasonable. The judgment said that point would need to be pleaded in legally correct and particularised terms, supported by sufficient facts and brought in the context of a specific development or proposed development.
The court also identified other requirements for any future case, including appropriate declaratory relief, correctly named respondents and facts establishing standing. It said some problems could not be fixed by redrafting the existing pleadings.
The order discharged the leave granted on 17 June 2024 and perfected the following day. It was made without prejudice to McGreal’s right to seek similar relief in future properly constituted proceedings. The court made no order as to costs.