The High Court has refused six applicants permission to appeal its decision upholding approval for a new wastewater treatment plant and foul pumping station at Kilkee, Co. Clare.
Martin Busher, Joseph McCloskey, Brian Melican, Ivan Graydon, Tom Boland and Terry Reynolds had challenged An Coimisiún Pleanála’s June 2025 decision permitting the Uisce Éireann project.
Their substantive judicial review was dismissed in July 2026. They then sought leave to appeal on two questions concerning how planning legislation and the European Union Waste Water Treatment Regulations 2005 had been dealt with.
Mr Justice Humphreys rejected both proposed questions as a basis for an appeal.
The first suggested that the High Court had prevented the applicants from raising a legal interpretation argument because they had not made that precise point during the planning process. The judge said that misrepresented the earlier ruling: the applicants had been permitted to advance their interpretation argument, but it failed.
The second question concerned whether a planning condition requiring construction in accordance with approved plans and particulars, including a commitment to comply with the 2005 Regulations, was sufficient. The court held that this was not a pure question of law suitable for appeal, but an application of the regulations to the particular project and evidence before the commission.
The court also stressed the practical context. Kilkee has no wastewater treatment infrastructure and untreated wastewater, including raw sewage, has been discharged to coastal waters. The commission had found that the approved project would provide needed infrastructure and improve environmental water quality.
Humphreys J held that neither proposed question was of exceptional public importance and that an appeal was not desirable in the public interest, particularly given the potential for further delay.
The leave application was therefore dismissed. The earlier order dismissing the judicial review proceedings is to be perfected as the final High Court order, with no order as to costs unless the Supreme Court grants a leapfrog appeal.