Dublin solicitor criticises "illegal" changes to Planning and Development Act

Dublin-based solicitor Fred Logue has criticised the Government for pricing ordinary people from protecting the environment, describing proposed changes to the Planning and Development Act as "illegal."

The proposed changes will introduce a scale of fees to be applied in certain environmental judicial reviews.

According to the Department of Climate, Energy, and the Environment, the proposal aims to make the State's legal costs more predictable and proportionate.

The department claims that people will still be able to challenge decisions.

Logue, who opposes the changes, says that it could cost "hundreds of thousands of euros" for people to hold the state accountable for breaking environmental law.

"Financial barriers to environmental litigation are illegal, because protecting the environment is an important public interest," said Logue. The government now wants to make it super expensive (>€100,000) for ordinary people to go to court to protect the environment."

"The Government is currently engaged in an extremely short consultation on proposed rules to cap legal costs when you go to court and hold the state to account for breaking environmental law," explained Logue."In effect, they want you to pay hundreds of thousands of euros should you choose to do this. If you think this is wrong, make your views known by emailing [email protected]."

Submissions to the government consultation close at 5:30 pm on Thursday, January 15.

The consultation document can be viewed here.