Planning and Environment Court
The Planning and Environment Court is a division of the High Court established by Practice Direction signed by President Barniville with effect from 11 December 2023.
The current Practice Direction is HC137. Parties and practitioners should familiarise themselves with this Practice Direction.
The judge in charge of the Court is Judge Humphreys, and the other Judges assigned full-time to the List are Judges Holland and Farrell.
The purpose of the Court is to provide as efficient a processing as is consistent with justice of such planning and environmental cases, and related cases as specified above, as are assigned or admitted to the Planning and Environment List.
The Planning and Environment Court is designed to cover all planning and environment High Court proceedings, including the following, irrespective of whether the original proceedings were initiated in or admitted to the Planning & Environment Court or not:
- judicial reviews of planning and environment-type decisions;
- planning and environment-type injunctions or other proceedings initiated in the High Court;
- appeals from/judicial reviews of the Commissioner for Environmental Information;
- Circuit Court planning and environment-type proceedings that have been transferred to the High Court;
- appeals from the Circuit Court to the High Court sitting in Dublin in planning and environment-type proceedings (including appeals as to the costs of such proceedings) (i.e., under s. 37 of the Courts of Justice Act 1936, excluding provincial appeals in cases heard on oral evidence that are brought to the High Court on Circuit);
- judicial reviews of planning and environment-type proceedings in the District or Circuit Courts including as to costs;
- appeals to the High Court under s. 161 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 in respect of the costs of Planning & Environment proceedings; and
- judicial review of costs adjudication decisions in planning and environment-type proceedings.
Requirements of the List
Legal practitioners and persons taking legal proceedings encompassed by the Planning and Environment List are directed to review the requirements of the list as set forth in Practice Direction 137. From time to time the Judge in charge of the List may issue guidance notes or bulletins with content relevant to the operation of the list. These notices will be published on this website.
Any person requesting access to a remote hearing otherwise than via a link supplied to parties and legal representatives should contact the List Registrar via [email protected].
A circulation list is maintained by the List Registrar. If you wish to be added to this circulation list then please contact [email protected].
A brief history of the Planning and Environment Court
In June 2020, the Programme for Government was published envisaging the establishment of a Planning and Environment Court. As a precursor to the implementation of that decision, in October 2020, President Irvine established a Commercial Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) List, managed by Judge Humphreys, to cover SID cases and planning cases admitted to the Commercial Court. With effect from the commencement of the list, a practice direction (HC96) provided for a requirement for core grounds of challenge to avoid unfocused statements of grounds. In January 2021 a revised practice direction (HC103) introduced default terms for an order granting leave. A core book of pleadings was required from April 2021. In June 2021 a revised practice direction (HC107) introduced the requirement to lodge papers electronically rather than physically on the court’s ShareFile platform, and formalised the requirement for a core book of pleadings.
A second judge, Judge Holland, was assigned in October 2021. In April 2022, Large-scale residential development was added to the list by addendum to the practice direction. In September 2022, by practice direction HC114, President Barniville transferred the function of admitting cases to the list from the Commercial Court to the list itself. In November 2022 the Government made a formal decision to support the establishment of the Planning and Environment Court.
In April 2023, further practice direction (HC119) restructured the list as the Commercial Planning and Environmental List, making provision for a wide range of environmental matters to be covered by the list subject to commerciality, as well as access to information on the environment cases and satellite cases/alleged strategic litigation against public participation. Authorities were to be provided by way of a list rather than full copies except where not available on the web. A third judge, Judge Farrell, was assigned to the list in October 2023.
On foot of the Government decision, the Planning and Environment Court was formally established by President Barniville on 11 December 2023 (practice direction HC124). This removed the requirement for commerciality and allowed all planning and environment cases to be dealt with by the Court. It included provisions to manage claims for costs protection in an orderly way. A default directions schedule was included in the practice direction.
In April 2024 PD HC124 was recast to allow hearings of certain matters on the papers by consent, and to provide for cases to be automatically listed in the list to fix dates following completion of pleadings rather than being mentioned following opposition papers and from time to time thereafter. In June 2024, PD HC126 was adopted, providing for current procedures in the Planning and Environment Court. It designated the applicant as the default document management party, and provided for a standard procedure for hearings (2–3 days) or an expedited procedure (3.5 hours), in particular in relation to projects covered by the renewable energy directive and certain other cases.
In November 2024 a standard list of authorities was published on the P and E Court webpage. In December 2024 a Users’ Group was established with 17 members representing a wide range of stakeholders, to give feedback and views on Court procedures.
In March 2025, a live online observation channel at a publicly available web address was established for the main list, to enable practitioners and other interested parties to view proceedings remotely.
In April 2025 the Court web page was redesigned with a view to publishing material in a more user-friendly manner. A user feedback exercise was also launched with a view to improving the user experience in the Court.
In June 2025, new rules of court for the Planning & Environment Court came into force, now Order 103 of the Rules of the Superior Courts.
In April 2026 Practice Direction 137 was adopted. This provides for fast-tracking of nationally significant infrastructure projects, clarifies the expanded scope of the list, and provides more rigorous timelines for papers including the statement of case.
