Residents of Monkstown, situated in Southern County Dublin, have been granted judicial permission to continue their lawsuit claiming that a proposed construction of 387 residences may have harmful impacts on the water quality at Seapoint, a favoured local swimming area. The plaintiffs argue that the Planning Board of Ireland (An Bord Pleanála) disregarded potential problems of increased sewage overflow at the Salthill Wastewater plant which could be caused by the proposed development.
On Monday, Justice David Holland listened to the application for special permission lodged by Monkstown Road Resident Association and Richard Tempany, who lives close to the potential building site at Dalguise, Monkstown Road. Holland allowed them to seek legal directives to reverse the Planning Board’s approval of the development and to question decisions made by Irish Water (Uisce Éireann) and the Ministry of Housing and Heritage. However, this leave was granted without prejudice, thus permitting Irish Water and the Ministry to argue that the lawsuit was initiated too late.
GEDV Monkstown Owner Limited got the green light in February last year to construct 387 apartments, primarily for rent. The local community and Tempany, represented legally by James Devlin SC, Alan Doyle, and FP Logue solicitors, suggest the Planning Board committed several legal missteps in the planning stages, including the alleged delay in uploading the environment impact assessment report on their official web portal.
The opposition has also criticised Irish Water’s September 2022 correspondence confirming the availability of wastewater network capacity to accommodate the additional sewer connections from the upcoming project. According to them, the board’s approval based on this information is invalid since the discharge would end up in an “unauthorised” and “unregulated” sewer which overflows during rain.
Moreover, they argue that the planning committee failed to evaluate if the construction activity would disrupt local bat populations and their breeding spots. Additionally, they argue that the Minister for Housing and Heritage did not properly fulfil his commitments towards nature conservation when deciding on the matter in 2022.
Mr Justice Holland approved the application for a hearing while the case was in the “ex parte” phase, meaning that only the plaintiffs are recognised by the court at this stage. The case was then postponed to a future date when the accused parties and the developer can offer their rebuttals.