{"id":378172,"date":"2026-04-02T11:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:12:08","slug":"environmental-group-loses-challenge-to-permission-for-power-plant-in-north-kerry-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378172\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental group loses challenge to permission for power plant in north Kerry \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An environmental group has lost its High Court<\/a> bid to overturn permission for a major power plant in north Co Kerry<\/a>. <\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la<\/a> had in March 2025 granted permission to Shannon LNG for the proposed development of a 600-megawatt power plant and battery storage facility on a 255-hectare (630-acre) site between Tarbert and Ballylongford on the Shannon estuary.<\/p>\n

The permission was challenged by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) in judicial review proceedings taken against the commission, Ireland, the Attorney General and the Minister for Housing. Shannon LNG was a notice party. <\/p>\n

Among various claims, FIE claimed the commission breached Irish and European law in granting permission for the power plant.<\/p>\n

It claimed the commission failed to adequately consider statutory carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings set out in the Government\u2019s Climate Action Plan 2024, and related obligations under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.<\/p>\n

The calculated greenhouse gas emissions arising from the proposed development were \u201csignificantly underestimated\u201d in an environmental impact assessment report submitted to the board by the developer, it claimed.<\/p>\n

Based on these \u201cunderestimated\u201d calculations, the proposed development will account for one third of all budgeted emissions \u2013 based on limits set out in 2024 Climate Action Plan \u2013 from the entire electricity sector in 2030, it was argued.<\/p>\n

In a judgment published on Wednesday, Judge Richard Humphreys dismissed the proceedings.<\/p>\n

The commission had taken the view this project will provide \u201cbackup to a renewables-based electricity grid and will contribute to the resilience of the overall energy supply network\u201d, the judge said.<\/p>\n

It had said: \u201cThe need for such flexible generation capacity is recognised as a national priority in the Government policy statement on security of electricity supply and in the Climate Action Plan 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without taking in any way from \u201cthe supreme importance of the issues regarding the climate emergency so thoroughly raised\u201d by FIE, \u201ca seasoned and respected environmental NGO\u201d, the primary legal question was whether it had shown any \u201csufficiently convincing\u201d legal basis \u201cto displace the commission\u2019s reasoned conclusion in that regard\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

Among various conclusions, he said it is settled law that the 2015 Act involves \u201ca spectrum of options\u201d that can be regarded as consistent with climate goals and instruments. <\/p>\n

Applying that law to the facts of the case, he said FIE had failed to show the commission\u2019s decision fell outside the spectrum of options available to it.<\/p>\n

FIE had also failed to demonstrate inadequacy in European Union law assessments or any other infirmity in the commission\u2019s decision, he held.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s decision is susceptible to \u201ca valid reading\u201d and no infirmity had been shown which would render it appropriate for the court to exercise its discretion in favour of quashing the permission, he held.<\/p>\n

The judge said he proposed to make no order for costs, meaning each side would pay their own costs of the proceedings. The parties are entitled to make submissions to the court if they disagree with that proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An environmental group has lost its High Court bid to overturn permission for a major power plant in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[75,2885,42,73,7727,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-378172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-an-coimisiun-pleanala","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-high-court","12":"tag-kerry","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}