merrion street

Eoghan Murphy T.D. Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has today (9 December 2019) announced a public consultation on proposed reforms to the Judicial Review (JR) provisions in the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), as outlined in the new General Scheme of the Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019.  This will run for 5 weeks until the 13 January 2020. 

The General Scheme is now published on the Department’s website http://www.housing.gov.ie and includes proposed legislative reforms to the Judicial Review provisions as follows: 

• to provide that JR challenges shall be restricted to decisions made by An Bord Pleanála,
• to revert to the previous “motion on notice” approach instead of the current “motion exparte” approach for the purposes of JR leave applications to the courts,
• to revise the “substantial grounds” and “sufficient interest” criteria for the purposes of granting JR leave applications,
• to revise the criteria of environmental NGOs to take JR proceedings and to avail of the special costs rules applicable to JRs,
• to revise the special legal costs rules in relation to JR proceedings (i.e. introduction of new cost capping arrangements). 

Further details on the proposed reforms are outlined in the General Scheme and its associated explanatory notes.  Submissions are invited from interested parties and this process will inform the further development of the draft legislation.

Submissions can be made before 5pm Monday 13 January 2020 via email to the following email address 'planning@housing.gov.ie' with the subject line ‘Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019’; or by writing to 'Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019 Submissions, Planning Policy and Legislation Section, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Custom House, Dublin D01 W6X0'.

Note to Editors

The Proposed Changes regarding Environmental NGOs

Environmental NGOs are given special status and have “automatic standing rights” in relation to the taking of judicial review challenges. It is proposed to set new minimum criteria in this regard i.e. qualifying NGOs must have a minimum number of members, length of time pursuing objectives, possess a specified legal personality / constitution etc. Such criteria are in line with requirements that are commonplace in other jurisdictions.  These criteria will only apply to Environmental NGOs. Under the proposed changes, groups or individuals other than environmental NGOs will still be entitled to take judicial review challenges where the Court is satisfied that they have substantial grounds for making the challenge and they have a substantial interest in the case. There is no minimum number of members / minimum time period in existence requirement for groups or individuals in this regard i.e. there will be no restrictions on them taking judicial review challenges as long as they satisfy the substantial grounds / interest requirements.

By way of further explanation, where there is a group of local residents who are opposed to a proposed new development in their locality which will directly affect them, they will still be able to take a judicial review challenge regarding such development as long as they have substantial grounds for the challenge and they have previously objected before the local planning authority or An Bord Pleanala.

Link to Public Consultation