PREVENTING JUDICIAL REVIEW proceedings against the state’s planning decisions amounts to “shooting the messenger”, a housing expert has said.

It comes as The Irish Times reported this morning that Uisce Éireann is warning that there will be no capacity for new housing units in Co Dublin within three years after planning for a much-needed drainage project was overturned.

The Dublin Drainage Project received more than 14,000 objections from local residents but was overturned in 2020 after the High Court agreed with a case taken by a sea swimmer, who argued that the plant would impact the water quality in the north of the county.

Speaking to The Journal, housing professor Lorcan Sirr said: “Getting rid of judicial reviews would be getting rid of the symptoms, not the cause.”

Judicial reviews are legal procedures which sees a judge revisit decisions by State bodies, such as An Bord Pleanála. It is the right of any citizen, business or agency to request that a court revises planning decisions.

He said judicial reviews are filed by all types of people, including departments, rival developers, politicians and advocacy groups. Sirr said the suggestion that objectors are disgruntled members of the public is not always the case.

If the correct planning procedures were followed by An Bord Pleanála more often, he said, there would not be as many cases before the courts. Sirr said that the majority of cases seek judicial review because the planning authority “didn’t do its job correctly”.

The sea swimmer argued to the High Court in 2020 that An Bord Pleanála failed to seek observations of the Environmental Protection Agency. A judge agreed and the project’s planning was revoked.

Sirr said getting rid of judicial reviews would lead to more cases being filed in the courts system and would “de-democratise” the planning system. He added that the removal of the procedure would amount to “shooting the messenger”.

The overturning of the drainage project’s planning permission is the latest court decision to disrupt housing delivery, in a scenario which is becoming commonplace in the construction of critical infrastructure.

As more high-profile infrastructure projects are overturned, however, there has been questions over the appropriateness of the court’s involvement in planning decisions.

In recent weeks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the courts are not the place for planning applications once projects have been approved. Uisce Éireann has also raised concerns over “serial objectors”.