Darren O'Rourke
Question:398. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Justice the progress made in establishing an environmental court within the High Court; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41001/23]
View answerTuesday, 26 September 2023
Questions (398)
Written answers
As the Deputy will be aware, both the Programme for Government and the Government's Housing for All Strategy commits to the establishment of a new division of the High Court dealing with planning and environmental issues.
I can inform the Deputy that whilst the new court has been operationally established as such for some months now, it is expected to be fully and formally in place shortly. For the Deputy’s information, the background to this is as follows:
On 2nd November 2022, I received Government approval to proceed with establishing a dedicated planning and environmental division of the High Court in line with the commitments mentioned. This approval followed on from work undertaken by officials in my Department who worked in partnership with the Courts Service and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and consulted with other Departments that have significant interests in planning and environmental cases.
An operational structure - a Planning and Environmental Court Steering & Implementation Group – was put in place in March 2022 for the three bodies to work together. This work of this group has informed the arrangements being put in place. On 29th March 2023, the President of the High Court signed a new Practice Direction which is necessary for the establishment for the new court.
Practice Direction 119 contains a radical overhaul of the procedures being applied in the renamed “Commercial Planning and Environmental List”, previously known as the “Commercial Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Development List”. The Practice Direction came into effect on 17 April 2023 and there are two Judges of the High Court assigned to this list.
In parallel with this process, Government approved the recommendations of the Judicial Planning Working Group on 21 February 2023. The Courts Act 2023 was signed into law on 19 May 2023 creating six additional posts in the High Court. As of 25 September 2023, five of the Judges of the High Court have been appointed.
A number of vacancies in the High Court, including the last remaining additional post, are due to be filled shortly. The President of the High Court has indicated that one of these judges is to be appointed to the Commercial, Planning and Environmental List which will then formally become the Planning and Environmental Court.
The range of cases which will be dealt with by that court will be further expanded from those which are being dealt with in the Commercial Planning and Environmental List and the Practice Direction has been prepared in a way which will enable this to happen seamlessly once the additional judge is assigned.