Court permits challenge to Pat McDonagh's plan for Clare motorway service station

High Court reporters

The High Court has given the go ahead for a challenge against An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant businessman and Supermac's boss Pat McDonagh permission to construct a motorway service station near Ennis, Co Clare to proceed.

In a written judgment, Mr Justice Richard Humphrey's said he was prepared to grant Co Clare-based engineer Michael Duffy permission to seek to overturn the 2022 decision to grant permission for the development of the service station and rest area, just off the M18 motorway at Kilbreckan, Doora, Ennis.

Clare County Council had given the proposed multi-million development the green light in 2020.

That decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which in October 2022 upheld the decision to grant permission.

The judge said the court was only prepared to grant "partial leave" and said the grounds of his challenge would have to be amended and served in the next few weeks.

Mr Duffy has brought the challenge on grounds that the proposed development will have an adverse effect on the local environment.

As part of his action, Mr Duffy claims there is no evidence that the board carried out an Appropriate Assessment, as required under EU law, to remove all reasonable scientific doubt that the proposed development will not adversely impact on any nearby environmentally protected sites.

He further submits that, in particular, the board did not conduct any Appropriate Assessments to determine that wastewater from the proposed development would not impact on any designated Special Areas of Conservation.

Leave was not being granted on several other grounds raised by Mr Duffy in his 2022 proceedings, the judge held.

The court also ruled that the council should not be a respondent, but should be a notice party to Mr Duffy's action.

Mr McDonagh, who had argued that the challenge should not be allowed to proceed before the courts, is also a notice party to the action.

In his ruling, the judge also dismissed an earlier set of judicial review proceedings, brought in 2021 by Mr Duffy, where he sought to challenge the council's decision to grant planning permission for the proposed development.

The judge ruled that no case for leave against the council had been made out by Mr Duffy in the actions.

The appeal against the council's decision to grant permission had been effectively decided by the board, the judge held, adding that the applicant's claim against the local authority was "misconceived".

The matter will return before the courts at a later date.