A new fee scale aimed at slashing legal costs payable by public bodies in environmental law cases will not harm environmental protections, the Minister for Justice has said.
Jim O’Callaghan said the new scale still allowed for “generous” fees in environmental judicial reviews and would “focus the minds” of applicants who wanted to pursue such cases.
Ministers proposed the fee scale, to come into effect on Monday, as part of Government efforts to speed up delivery of water, transport and electricity for housing, industry and infrastructure projects.
The scale applies to High Court cases taken under the Aarhus Convention, an international agreement that says access to justice in environmental matters should not be prohibitively expensive.
The new rules, provided for under section 294 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, specify a scale of costs to be awarded to applicants, subject to judicial discretion for a successful applicant.
