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LAST UPDATE | 19 mins ago
AN APPLICATION FOR a judicial review against the planned Luas extension to Finglas in north-west Dublin city has been filed at the High Court.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the state agency behind the project, confirmed to The Journal this morning that the case has been lodged.
It comes just weeks after a separate application for a judicial review was lodged against MetroLink, with delays to the country’s largest infrastructure project now inevitable as a result. The High Court has granted permission for that legal challenge by south Dublin residents to proceed.
The High Court lists the plaintiffs in the Luas Finglas case as Firethorn Limited and Manhattan Peanuts, which has been based in Finglas since the 1970s. An affidavit was filed yesterday. Company filings show Firethorn and Manhattan Peanuts are related firms.
In a statement to The Journal this evening, Manhattan Peanuts said it welcomed the proposed Luas extension and had enaged with TII in good faith, but the approved plans would remove access to its current entrance on St Margaret’s Road and lead to the compulsory purchase of lands where it currently has operations and had planned to further expand.
Managing Director Don O’Neill said: “Our involvement in this legal process does not oppose the Luas extension. Instead, it relates to a very specific and limited concern regarding the scale of land proposed to be taken from our rear yard – land which, in our view, is not required for the delivery or operation of the Luas extension and would result in unnecessary cost to the taxpayer.”
“We have repeatedly asked TII to reconsider the extent of land acquisition so that Manhattan Peanuts can continue to operate safely and effectively from its existing site, protecting local jobs and the long-term viability of a Finglas-based business that has served the community for almost five decades,” O’Neill said.
Manhattan Peanuts added that the timeline for the project meant there is “time and scope” for a solution to be found.
Luas Finglas got the green light from An Coimisiún Pleanála, the planning regulator, in October. When the government signed off on the project in 2024, it suggested it could be operational by 2031.
Manhattan Peanut’s case is listed for mention on 12 January.
The 4km extension to the Luas Green Line, beyond its current terminus at Broombridge in Cabra, aims to connect the populous northside suburb of Finglas to the city centre and beyond. It will serve up to 60,000 people a day. There will be four stops at St Helena’s, Finglas Village, St Margaret’s Road and Charlestown.
Feljin Jose, the Green Party’s transport spokesman and a councillor for Dublin city, said the extension is “badly needed” for tens of thousands of people who live, work and study in Finglas, and to enable the development of housing on industrial lands near Charlestown.
“The greater good has to prevail here. Far too many similar BusConnects and DART+ projects have been held up in similar delays,” Jose said.
The Dublin Commuter Coalition, a campaign group for better public transport in the capital, called this morning for a boycott of Manhattan crisps, a staple of pubs in the capital.
“Remind them with your wallets that they shouldn’t hold up essential public infrastructure,” Dublin Commuter Coalition said on the social media platform X.
The 2024 planning inspector’s report on the Luas Finglas development noted a number of issues raised by Firethorn and Manhattan, including that the project would affect “daily operations and development capacity” at Manhattan’s site. The companies said the plans submitted for Luas Finglas lacked detailed mitigation measures.
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