Ireland is losing decades of progress and tens of billions of taxpayers’ money to a system that no longer serves the public interest.
Judicial reviews, once a key check on major planning decisions, have become a weapon of delay, not justice.
Every month, new homes, renewable energy infrastructure, transport links, essential wastewater services and vital grid upgrades are trapped in legal limbo – not because of genuine environmental concerns, but because our laws allow almost anyone with time and a personal crusade to bring the country to a standstill.
What began as an important tool to safeguard communities has become a drag anchor on national development. Projects that could create thousands of jobs, deliver affordable homes or stop sewage overflowing are now measured, not in community gain, but in court lists.
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Legal challenges, often taken on the thinnest of grounds, can hold up a project for years, sometimes killing them entirely. Objectors don’t need to win. They only need to stall the system. In the meantime, costs mount, investors retreat, and ordinary families pay the price in higher rents, scarcer housing, and stalled infrastructure.
Legitimate environmental oversight is vital. Ireland must meet its climate and biodiversity obligations. No one disputes that. But there is a growing pattern of objectors using environmental law as a smokescreen for obstruction.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland is on track to miss its 2030 emissions targets by a wide margin. In a best-case scenario, emissions will fall by just 23 per cent – less than half the required reduction. As a result, the State could face penalties of up to €28 billion by 2030 to buy carbon credits from other EU countries.
Every renewable project stuck in legal limbo pushes us closer to that bill. These are not abstract costs: they will fall directly on Irish taxpayers. Too often, it’s less about protecting nature than about using the legal system as a stage for personal crusades.
We’ve built a process where a single individual can grind national priorities and basic services to a halt. Behind many of these challenges are not communities but individuals with no direct stake – people who seem motivated more by the attention and thrill that comes from “taking on the system” than by the outcomes for people or the planet.
The result is paralysis that costs the taxpayer dearly at every turn. The infrastructure Ireland needs to power the economy – water, energy, waste treatment, homes, hospitals, transport – is now hostage to procedural tactics. This is a compounding crisis.
Each delay drives up costs, undermines viability, frustrates delivery, and forces taxpayers to pay more for projects that may never happen. Behind every stalled housing scheme or cancelled infrastructure project is a generation left waiting – for homes they can afford, for commutes that make sense, for opportunities that should already exist.
As a homebuilder, I have firsthand experience of this insanity. We have about 650 potential homes now delayed by judicial reviews. But detractors will no doubt point to my commercial objectives. So, let’s look directly at taxpayers’ money.
When addressing the Oireachtas housing committee earlier this year, the Land Development Agency indicated that the two-year delay, as a result of a legal challenge, led to the cost of its flagship Dundrum project to increase by €30 million.
This translated into an increase in the cost of each home of at least €30,000 at that point, with no resolution in sight. And we wonder why people are struggling with affordability.
By our estimation, 37,000 homes have been delayed by judicial reviews across the planning system in recent years.
We need to reclaim common sense. In a democracy, everyone deserves a voice, but not a veto
This is compounded by the financial asymmetry of the system. There is virtually no cost or risk to appellants bringing a judicial review. Win or lose, they pay little to nothing, while the taxpayer absorbs legal fees, project delays, and inflated costs.
The taxpayer loses every way in these situations, funding both sides of the battle and bearing the consequences of delay.
It’s time to stop pretending this is balance – it’s dysfunction. Judicial reviews should remain a safeguard, not a shortcut to sabotage. The bar must be raised.
Cases should all be progressed and decided quickly. Frivolous, repetitive, or bad-faith challenges should be thrown out swiftly, and those who misuse the system should carry the cost of the chaos they create.
The Government needs to implement emergency legislation that fast-tracks key infrastructure projects, and which creates the appropriate environment for the planning, procurement and construction delivery of critical infrastructure. Such emergency approaches are being taken in other similar jurisdictions, such as the UK, where they have been experiencing similar challenges with overly onerous processes.
The Government must also mandate the fast-track planning and environmental court process to do its job and end the constant delays in decision-making. In tandem, the bar for judicial reviews needs to be raised and all parties need to be at risk of incurring costs.
Ireland’s ambition to build homes, tackle climate change, and modernise infrastructure is being throttled by a system that confuses participation with obstruction. We need to reclaim common sense. In a democracy, everyone deserves a voice, but not a veto.
Until we fix this, taxpayers, along with future generations, will keep paying the price.
Stephen Garvey is chief executive of Glenveagh
