An Taisce fails in its latest bid to stop Glanbia building cheese factory

Judge found none of the grounds advanced by An Taisce met the criteria for a certificate of leave to appeal

An Taisce had  challenged the planning permission granted to Kilkenny Cheese Ltd.

An Taisce has been refused leave to appeal the High Court’s rejection of its challenge to permission for a controversial Glanbia continental cheese manufacturing plant in Kilkenny.

In a judgment, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys found none of the grounds of appeal advanced by An Taisce met the criteria for a certificate of leave to appeal.

None of the grounds identified points of law of exceptional public importance arising from his judgment last April dismissing An Taisce’s case against An Bord Pleanála and the State, he ruled.

In challenging the planning permission granted to Kilkenny Cheese Ltd, An Taisce claimed the environmental effects of the milk inputs for the cheese plant at Belview, Kilkenny — being developed under a joint venture agreeement with Glanbia's Dutch partner Royal A-Ware — were not properly taken into account for the purposes of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Habitats Directives.

Meeting the State’s climate targets requires reducing the national herd of cows, not increasing it, and the dairy industry overall is unsustainable due to the adverse environmental impacts created by it, it claimed.

In his April judgment, Mr Justice Humphreys said An Taisce’s real grievance was with government policy and the issues raised were not a basis for challenging this permission under the planning code. 

General programmatic polices are not capable of being subject to the same sort of site-specific regulation as individual planning applications, he said.

An Taisce later applied for leave to appeal that decision but, in a further judgment today, the judge refused the necessary certificate.

No exceptional point of law of public importance was made out on the grounds advanced, including whether the indirect environmental effects of the project, including those due to the production of milk, are within the scope of the assessment required, he held.