The Beginning Of The End For Delays In Irish Environmental Decision-Making?

In 2013, the Irish High Court awarded €400,000 in compensation to two fishery companies because the Minister delayed unjustifiably in assessing and permitting mussel seed fishing in Castlemaine Harbour, a site protected by Irish and European environmental law. The State did not operate the environmental regime in an orderly way to allow harmony between environmental protection and the fisheries' businesses.

The Court held that there was a mistake of law in how the Minister thought it was appropriate to manage the aquaculture business in a balanced way with protecting the environment. There was "operational negligence" by the Minister in failing to carry out the regular scientific tests or monitoring that would have provided the baseline data to equip the Minister either to have a proper screening test or to have a fully informed appropriate assessment.

Background

In 2007, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Ireland had failed to...