The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court ruling invalidating State planning measures which removed a restrictive development objective from parts of Dalkey and Killiney.
Mr Justice Allen dismissed appeals by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Office of the Planning Regulator. The dispute concerned the “0/0 Objective” in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s Development Plan 2022–2028.
The objective generally restricted increases in the number of buildings in designated areas, while allowing some small-scale sensitive infill development. The areas included parts of Dalkey and Killiney near the DART line, where national planning policy also favours compact residential development and higher densities around public transport.
The OPR recommended that the objective be removed. The Minister later directed the council to delete it. The practical consequence was that the restriction ceased to form part of the Development Plan.
Mount Salus Residents Owners Management Company challenged those measures while contesting planning permission granted for a house at Torca Road, Dalkey. The High Court held that the OPR and Minister had assessed the plan too narrowly by concentrating on particular housing and compact-growth objectives and on the 0/0 areas themselves.
The Court of Appeal agreed. Mr Justice Allen said development plans must achieve general consistency, as far as practicable, with national and regional planning objectives. Those objectives can compete with each other, including policies favouring housing density and policies protecting architectural, environmental and natural heritage.
The court held that neither the OPR nor the Minister could focus on selected planning objectives while excluding other relevant ones. Their task was to decide whether the council’s plan, taken in the required statutory context, set out an overall lawful planning strategy, not whether a different planning balance would have been preferable.
Because the OPR’s recommendation was legally invalid, the Minister’s direction based on it also fell. The High Court order was affirmed, leaving the challenged 0/0 objective relevant to the reconsideration of the Torca Road planning application.