High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court granted leave today to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] to apply for a Judicial Review aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

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Given the expectation that the public must accept what restrictions the State imposes, the basis of these decisions are not the exclusive preserve of experts and advisers or even of elected officials. None of these officials was elected with the prospect of severe restriction of personal liberty in view. Yet this power has been arrogated by these officials on the basis of advice of a dire public health emergency, the predictions of which proved wholly exaggerated. It is insufficient at this stage to claim “emergency.” The emergency has passed. The harm has proved far less than advertised. Deaths are few. Yet “recommendations” are still being promulgated, and severe restrictions are again being proposed. read full story / add a comment

Call on Minister to control private companies as Bord Na Mona quits peat bedding sector

Action comes two years after environmental complaint

Two years after calling on the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to exercise his powers under the legislation to stop Teagasc, the Farm Advisory Service, and Bord na Mona from promoting the use of deep peat for bedding in animal housing, Bord na Mona has announced that it is exiting the peat bedding market.

The extent of the practice came to light on field trips conducted by Friends of the Irish Environment in the summer of 2018. It coincided with Bord na Mona and Teagasc beginning to market peat as an alternative to straw after the poor harvests led to shortages of straw. The company entered the market in 2017, having reportedly appointed a team to manage sales and grow the market in the wake of reduced use of peat for power generation.

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EU Court scuttles planned fracked gas terminal permission

‘Far reaching’ EU Court ruling on Shannon LNG terminal welcomed

The European Court of Justice has advised the Irish High Court that the 2018 extension by An Bord Pleanála to the 2008 planning permission for the construction of a proposed €500m fracked gas terminal on the south bank of the River Shannon estuary must be considered as a new permit for the purposes of the Habitats Directive and must be subject to a new Assessment under the Habitats Directive.

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European Court to rule on Shannon LNG Planning Permission
Court Advised to quash An Bord Pleanala’s consent for Shannon fracked gas terminal

An Bord Pleanála’s extension to the 2008 grant of planning permission for a €500m liquified natural gas terminal on the Shannon Estuary will be the subject of a Reference from the European Court of Justice on Wednesday.

A Preliminary Reference to the European Court was made by Irish High Court Justice Garret Simons on 1 February 2019 after a Judicial Review was brought by Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE].

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Bertie Ahern’s desire ‘to have the power of the Mayor of Shanghai’ is cited in an objection to the proposed fee for objection to forestry applications and appeals in a submission to the Draft Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2020. The draft legislation follows on from the 2019 McKenna Report which states that the opportunities that people have to comment and object to forestry proposals represents ‘a barrier to efficient decision-making’ and has ‘created further delays with significant administrative costs’ so the case for a fee is ‘unarguable’. read full story / add a comment

UN Press Release, 27 JULY 2020 – An additional 6.7 million children under the age of five could suffer from wasting – and therefore become dangerously undernourished – in 2020 as a result of the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF warned today.

According to an analysis published in The Lancet, 80 per cent of these children would be from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Over half would be from South Asia alone.

“It’s been seven months since the first COVID-19 cases were reported and it is increasingly clear that the repercussions of the pandemic are causing more harm to children than the disease itself,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Household poverty and food insecurity rates have increased. Essential nutrition services and supply chains have been disrupted. Food prices have soared. As a result, the quality of children’s diets has gone down and malnutrition rates will go up.” read full story / add a comment

High Court calls Ireland and the Attorney General into challenge to Legal Aid Board’s refusal to consider aid for environmental charity.

Judge highlight Aarhus Convention’s requirements for access to justice

High Court Justice Niamh Hyland has directed that Ireland and the Attorney General be joined in the proceedings brought by an environmental charity against the Legal Aid Board for its refusal to consider an application for legal aid because the charity was a company and not an individual. read full story / add a comment

Shannon LNG faces further challenge in High Court
Judicial Review of listing as ‘Project of Common Interest’

The controversial Shannon LNG terminal proposed for the Shannon Estuary faces its second challenge in the High Court from the environmental charity, Friends of the Irish Environment today. The environmental organisation is asking the Irish Court to seek a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union on whether the inclusion of the project on a list of priority European Energy infrastructure was lawful. read full story / add a comment

Legal Aid Board refusal to fund environmental NGO faces High Court challenge
Irish legal costs ‘prohibitively expensive’

The High Court will tomorrow [June 30] hear a two-day challenge to the Legal Aid Board’s refusal to provide legal aid to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE].

The NGO sought the funding in April of 2018 to support its Judicial Review of the National Development Plan and the National Planning Framework. This case alleges that the Government of Ireland erred in law in failing to adequately fulfil its obligations under the Strategic Environmental Assessment and the Habitats Directive when approving the plans. read full story / add a comment

PLANNING BOARD QUESTIONS DURSEY ISLAND MASS TOURISM PROJECT
Not Satisfied Over Bird Protection on Remote Island

An Bord Pleanála has sought further information on the application by Cork County Council in partnership with Fáilte Ireland for a €10 million development on Dursey Island off the west Cork coast.

The 6.5 km long uninhabited island, currently accessed by a cable car with a capacity of 6 and return journey time of 20 minutes, is to be replaced by a state-of-the-art two-way cable car system capable of carrying up to 300 people each way every hour. The project includes an extensive Visitor Centre with restaurant, gift shop and glazed elevator on the mainland. read full story / add a comment

High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court today formally initiated a Judicial Review proceedings aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

A judge will be assigned on July 15th to hear the application for leave to apply for a Judicial Review from the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment. read full story / add a comment

Bord na Móna ‘Enforcement Holiday’ flies in the face of a High Court Judgment
Semi-state accused of declaring Brexit for 80,000 hectares

An ‘enforcement holiday’ currently being exercised by Bord na Mona to allow industrial harvesting to continue this year across its bogs ‘flies in the face of a High Court Judgment’, according to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE]. read full story / add a comment

Councils must publish planning documents online within 5 days
Regulations impose time frame to ensure public access to planning applications

Local authorities are now obliged to put online planning applications within 5 days of their acceptance.

A Statutory Instrument published May 26, 2020 and signed by Eoghan Murphy, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, requires that Local Authorities must ‘publish the application and all documentation accompanying the application on its internet website within five days’. read full story / add a comment

Bord na Mona warned over unauthorised peat extraction on Timahoe Bog, Co. Laois

Bord na Mona has received a second solicitor’s letter warning that ongoing continuing industrial peat extraction on its bogs is unauthorised. The new warning relates to land leased by Bord na Mona to a private operator on the semi-state body’s Timahoe Bog in County Laois. read full story / add a comment

EU Biomass Case Denied Access to The Courts
Applicants considering appeal to end burning forest wood as renewable and carbon neutral

In March 2019 applicants from six countries including the USA brought a claim stating that the EU’s 2018 Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) will devastate forests and increase greenhouse gas emissions by promoting burning forest wood as renewable and carbon neutral.

On 11 May 2020 the EU Court published an order that the applicants who have brought this case, including individuals and groups from Estonia, France, Ireland, Romania and Slovakia, do not have legal standing and that it will not therefore make a decision on whether or not the biomass provisions of RED II should be annulled. read full story / add a comment

Invasive Australian flatworm reaches west Cork
Sellers of plants should warn public of dangers of contaminated garden matter

The invasive Australian flatworm has reached the Beara peninsula in west Cork. Flatworms from New Zealand were first recorded in Ireland in the 1960’s but the Australian flatworm was not recorded until 1981.

Flatworms are top-level predators of soil organisms. They eat earthworms and appear to have met no natural enemies of their own in Ireland. According to the National Biodiversity Centre, the implications of its indefinite spread for the drainage and fertility of our soil ‘pose a threat to Ireland’s biodiversity and economy’. Japanese knotweed and the zebra mussels are examples of invasive species now out of control in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

130 national and international groups have today written to all Irish Party leaders requesting them to remove support for fracked gas infrastructure in Ireland. The letter comes as negotiations for Government intensify and requests an explicit policy statement to be included in the next Programme for Government against the development of all new fossil fuel infrastructure in the form of LNG import terminals that could facilitate the entry of unconventional fracked gas into the Irish energy mix.

Two fracked gas terminals, or - LNG - terminals are currently proposed, in Shannon and Cork. The terminals would be developed as import hubs, allowing fracked gas into the European market from the USA where there is currently an oversupply of this controversial fuel. The terminals would play an important role in the shale gas supply chain, the market for which is currently very unstable. read full story / add a comment

High Court to rule Friday on challenge to National Development Plan
‘Project Ireland 2040’ will lock-in fossil-fuel dependent infrastructure

The failure of the State to properly assess the impact of the National Development Plan and National Planning Framework (‘Project Ireland 2040’) and to fully examine the alternatives will be the subject of a High Court Judgment to be published electronically this Friday, 24 April, 2020.

Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] was granted leave to challenge the Irish Government’s adoption of ‘Project Ireland 2040’ in May 2018. Mr. Justice Barr presided over four days of hearings beginning on 10 March, 2020. read full story / add a comment

High Court refuses State’s request for Covid-19 adjournment in Shannon LNG Judicial Review
Administration of Justice Can Not ‘Grind To a Halt’

The High Court has issued a Judgment refusing the State’s application for a delay in hearing an environmental challenge to the inclusion of the €500 million Shannon LNG fracked gas terminal on the fourth EU Projects of Community Importance (PCI) list. Inclusion on this list makes a project eligible for up to 50% funding and requires ‘the most rapid treatment legally possible’. read full story / add a comment