Gavan Reilly: Chambers’ decisions this week will have ripple effects for decades
Darragh O’Brien made a very interesting, and revealing, comment last week when he was asked about the MetroLink. The sod was due to be turned on the airport rail link sometime in 2027, until a group of residents in Ranelagh went to court to challenge its planning approval.
They’re hardly the first ones to do it. By some counts over 100 similar challenges were made in the first half of this year alone. In principle, those are completely justifiable: Ireland’s a democracy, and adherence to the laws of the land is a cornerstone of democracy. Any citizen is entitled to the protection of the law, and to know that the law is being followed correctly.
The downside for O’Brien, of course, is that a flagship transport project – the sort of thing which could even rehabilitate the career of someone with five underwhelming years in the Department of Housing – is now on ice.
And what can he do about it? That’s where the interesting comment comes in. all the minister could do, was urge the residents not to do it.
A major infrastructure project, which could open up huge tracts of greenfield lands for development and meaningfully contribute to fixing Leinster’s chronic housing shortage, is on hold… and all the minister can do is beg.
The point of judicial reviews is not to appeal the substance of a planning decision – you’re only supposed to go to the courts if there’s a problem with the process itself. The courts generally exercise a certain degree of caution: if they think you’re appealing a case simply because you didn’t like the previous finding, you’re given short shrift.
Nonetheless some vox pops among other residents in Ranelagh were insightful in their own way too: none of the applicants themselves would speak to newspaper reporters, but those living close by were sympathetic. The new Metro terminus would run behind their back gardens, they said. Nobody would want that. One assumes the residents have more substantive legal concerns than the mere idea that their back gardens.
Ironically, part of those residents’ concerns is down to the issues raised by others a little further south. The original plans entailed merging the Metro with the green Luas line, with existing lines getting busier, limiting residents’ abilities to traverse the tracks in Beechmount. Their Nimbyism, practical though it may have been, has simply passed the problem upstream.
Now the government is set to reveal some of their proposals for tackling the zealous overuse of judicial reviews. How will the balance be struck? How can the government ensure that broader projects serving a greater good, are not held hostage by a small segment who don’t want inconvenience? But how, on the other hand, can the government manage that while still making sure that citizens have the rights they should enjoy in any democracy – the right to challenge unlawful and unjust decision making in the courts?
I don’t envy Jack Chambers and others in trying to strike the balance, but they have to. The capital is already creaking; the population will keep growing but the capacity of our roads won’t. Something has to give; something must be delivered. This can’t go on.