The Supreme Court has ruled that Bernard and Helen McDonagh are entitled to their costs of the appeal against Clare County Council, after allowing their appeal against mandatory interlocutory injunctions requiring them to vacate Council-owned lands.
The costs ruling, delivered on 14 March 2020, follows the Court’s judgment on the appeal, delivered by Hogan J on 31 January 2022. The judgment is cited as *Clare County Council v McDonagh* [2022] IESC 2. The dates appear in that order in the source.
The Court said the defendants raised important issues of principle that required determination. It ordered that they have their costs in the Supreme Court, to be taxed if the parties cannot agree, in accordance with the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. It refused the Council’s request to stay that costs order.
The ruling also addressed costs from the interlocutory injunction hearings in the High Court and Court of Appeal. The Council conceded that the costs orders it had obtained in those courts should be vacated following the Supreme Court’s decision. The Court accepted that important factual issues remained for the High Court at a full hearing, and said the trial judge would be better placed to assess those earlier costs after that hearing.
It therefore reserved the High Court and Court of Appeal injunction costs to the trial of the action and vacated the existing costs orders in the Council’s favour. The ruling does not determine the remaining factual issues or the ultimate outcome of the action. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which participated as amicus curiae, was to bear its own costs.