Residents’ appeal on runway is rejected

THE Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by local residents over the planned €320m new runway at Dublin Airport.

In a written determination, a three-judge Supreme Court said the matters raised by 22 residents in their appeal about a challenge to a decision to extend the period of the project’s planning approval did not involve an issue of public importance.

Last February, the High Court’s Mr Justice Max Barrett refused permission for leave to bring an appeal to the Court of Appeal. He found no points of exceptional public importance had been raised. That followed Mr Justice Barrett’s November judgment rejecting the residents’ case against the runway. The residents then applied for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The residents had challenged the decision of the planning authority, Fingal Council, to extend what was a 10-year permission to develop the airport, granted in 2007, until 2022.

They claimed a fresh environmental impact assessment and/ or first appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive were required as part of any decision to extend permission.

They claimed they were precluded from the extension decision, and development work on the site had commenced without proper compliance with the original permission.

Fingal Council and the State opposed the application for an appeal, as did the airport authority and Ryanair, who were notice parties in the case. The Supreme Court said the High Court had found the proceedings were an impermissible collateral attack on the original planning permission process.