The High Court has quashed a decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) to give permission to Aughinish Alumina in Co Limerick to extend its Bauxite Residue Waste Area (BDRA) by 8 million cubic metres.Russian-owned Aughinish Alumina Ltd (AAL) wants to extend the size of the BRDA containing so-called “red mud” waste from the site to facilitate the continuing operations of AAL’s alumina refinery on the Shannon estuary to 2039. As a result of the successful High Court judicial review challenge brought by Environmental Trust Ireland (ETI) against the ACP March 2025 green light for the extension, Judge David Holland has now remitted the case back to ACP for fresh consideration.AAL operates the largest alumina refinery in Europe. An Irish Times investigation in March, carried out in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, detailed the downstream role Aughinish Alumina plays in the supply chain of the Russian military .The reporting revealed Aughinish Alumina is shipping vast amounts of alumina to smelters in Russia, where the raw material is used to make aluminium later supplied to dozens of Russian arms manufacturers.At the end of his 177 page written ruling on the planning matter, Holland says that “this judgment does not find that the proposed development poses unacceptable risk – as to either flood risk or risk of seepage of alkaline effluent through its base”.He said: “Those are issues for the Commission to decide, not the courts. It is, rather, a decision that, as a matter of law, further and better consideration of those issues is required to inform a lawful decision whether the proposed development should be permitted.”AAL has been trying to secure planning permission for the BRDA for the past five years and first lodged plans direct to An Coimisuin Pleanala in 2021. The ruling is the second time the High Court has quashed a grant of permission on the BRDA plans.ACP granted planning permission for the BRDA in March 2025 after earlier rescinding its own decision to grant permission in October 2024 after discovering that the ACP inspector’s report which recommended a grant of permission had been prepared using artificial intelligence (AI) software.In his ruling concerning the March 2025 grant of permission, Holland quashed the ACP decision over the commission’s failure to have regard to the Limerick County Development Plan as to flood risk. The judge quashed the ACP on a second ground after finding the grant of permission irrational for want of an evidential basis for the conclusion that basal seepage through the base of the BRDA will continue to be negligible during the construction/operational phase of the proposed development, before its closure in or about 2039. Holland has provisionally ruled that ETI should have its costs and has adjourned the case to July 6th for mention.