{"id":422394,"date":"2026-04-28T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422394\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T23:00:08","slug":"former-attorney-general-loses-legal-challenge-to-slane-bypass-planning-approval-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422394\/","title":{"rendered":"Former attorney general loses legal challenge to Slane bypass planning approval \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former attorney general\u2019s legal challenge to the planning approval granted for a long-delayed bypass road in Co Meath<\/a> has been dismissed by the High Court<\/a>. <\/p>\n

John Rogers, a senior counsel, argued that An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la<\/a> (ACP) did not have access to sufficient expertise required to examine certain environmental impacts of the proposed N2 bypass at Slane when it granted permission to Meath County Council<\/a> for the development.<\/p>\n

In a judgment on Tuesday, Judge David Nolan said he had \u201cserious doubts\u201d as to whether the commission had the expertise to deal with \u201cimportant issues\u201d raised by Rogers\u2019s case. <\/p>\n

However, he found Rogers\u2019s case had not proven \u201con an evidential basis\u201d a lack of expertise on the part of the commission. <\/p>\n

In the circumstances, the judge found \u201cwithout much enthusiasm\u201d that Rogers had not discharged the required burden of proof. He dismissed the case.<\/p>\n

Rogers, of Crewbane, Slane, argued that the proposed bypass would impact his lands. <\/p>\n

In an affidavit, he submitted that petrifying streams in his lands would be particularly affected by the development. Crewbane marsh floods a number of times a year and the commission had not obtained expert hydrology advice about the impact of proposed deep trenching for the proposed route, he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former attorney general to challenge Slane bypass planning approval in High CourtOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The road project would involve the construction of a 3.5km-long bypass around Slane village, and include a dual carriageway and a 258m-long bridge over the river Boyne.<\/p>\n

The project would run adjacent to the Unesco<\/a> Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne World Heritage Site of Outstanding Natural Value, which includes the Neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his judgment, Nolan identified the central issues in the case as Rogers\u2019s assertion that the commission did not have sufficient expertise available to it to examine an environmental impact assessment report (EIA) filed as part of the council\u2019s planning application. The onus of proof lay with the Rogers side, the judge said. <\/p>\n

The judge noted that Rogers\u2019s case did not demonstrate how the alleged lack of expertise undermined the EIA, or identify a defect in the EIA which the commission ought to have detected. <\/p>\n

However, the judge said it was clear Rogers\u2019s case was critical of issues relating to \u201cthe potential effect of water flows and the location of bridges crossing the Boyne\u201d. <\/p>\n

The judge also said it was notable that neither the commission nor the council had engaged with the substance of Rogers\u2019s case. However, he ultimately found that Rogers\u2019s case did not discharge the burden of proof required. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile [Rogers\u2019s] assertions carry some weight, assertion alone is insufficient. Recent decisions of the court make clear that where an alleged error turns on expert opinion, it must be substantiated by expert evidence,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Rogers side] cannot simply contend, as he does here, that the commission lacked the requisite expertise … That falls short of what is required.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former attorney general\u2019s legal challenge to the planning approval granted for a long-delayed bypass road in Co…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75,73,61,60,15949,26685,106892,43,27991],"class_list":["post-422394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-coimisiun-pleanala","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meath","tag-meath-county-council","tag-newgrange","tag-news","tag-unesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422394","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=422394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}