Government parties at odds over limited access to judicial reviews on planning 

Darragh O’Brien's fellow ministers, Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin, are said to have spoken against his proposed curbs on planning objections

Arts Minister Catherine Martin and Climate Minister and party leader Eamon Ryan are among the Greens who are said to have raised objections about the Coalition's Planning and Development Bill. File picture: Eamon Ward

The Government parties are on a collision course over plans to limit access to judicial reviews in the planning process with the Green Party insisting access to justice should be as wide as possible.

The Cabinet approved the text of its new Planning and Development Bill aimed at streamlining planning, but a gulf has emerged between the coalition parties on the issue of judicial reviews.

The bill will limit access to taking judicial reviews to individual members but not local resident associations. That has raised concerns among the Green Party.

While most ministers backed Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s long-awaited bill, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and Arts Minister Catherine Martin are said to have tabled “observations” detailing views against limited access to the courts.

Mr Ryan, in his observations, called on Mr O’Brien to remember the necessity that the scheme “fully meets its obligations on the Aarhus convention”, which was created to empower the role of citizens and civil society organisations in environmental matters and is founded on the principles of participative democracy.

Despite the Cabinet formally approving the text of the bill, the party’s spokesman in Government insisted the Greens want access to an appeal to be as wide as possible.

“We certainly believe that the widest number of people possible should be able to take an appeal if they so wish,” said the Greens’ government spokesman.

The spokesman said the plan, which will next month be published in legislative form, is only “a draft” with extensive pre-legislative scrutiny to be undergone before it becomes law.

Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan told the Irish Examiner members in the party are contacting her who are upset and concerned. She said: 

It flies in the face of the party’s long time commitment to the Aarhus convention and I suspect will be challenged almost immediately if passed.

She said judicial reviews are a tiny percentage of planning permissions anyway so it is hard to see why this would be worth the inevitable legal issues.

Stephen Matthews, Green Party TD and chairman of the housing committee, claimed the measures would “exclude people from seeking justice” in planning.

He said he didn’t believe groups could be excluded from such reviews and that the bill is “only a draft”.

Mr Matthews has sent an email to all Green Party members saying some of the changes proposed in the draft bill will require further consideration.

He said the government is committed to the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.

“It is essential that this is maintained in the planning system.”

Mr Matthews said he and his colleagues have long campaigned for the introduction of a form of legal aid which would support the public and NGOs in taking cases on behalf of the environment.