Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Ireland ratified the Aarhus Convention in 2012 and over 60 pieces of legislation have been used to implement this. The Convention governs environmental justice rights, and is formed by three aspects, or ‘pillars of the Convention’ namely, Access to Information on the Environment; Public Participation in Decision-Making in Environmental Matters; and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.

There are two EU Directives implementing the Access to Information on the Environment and Public Participation elements of the Convention, but none for Access to Justice – one reason being that Ireland and some other Member States have a dual common law system instead of just civil law.

In September 2019, a Government decision was made to proceed with a Bill reforming judicial review procedures for strategic infrastructure developments being put forward by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. Following publication of the Planning and Development Bill in October 2023, an Interdepartmental Group has been established to draft the regulations in relation to the scale of fees for all applicants for judicial review and to examine the proposed Environmental Legal Costs Financial Assistance Mechanism. Work on the Aarhus Convention Bill will resume when these regulations are finalised, as they will inform how the issue of costs are dealt with in the Aarhus Convention Bill.