Hoctor and Ors v an Coimisiún pleanála and Anor

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judge: Humphreys J.
• Judgment Date: 10 February 2026
• Neutral Citation: [2026] IEHC 65
• Docket Number: [H.JR.2025.0001283]

In the Matter of Section 50, 50A and 50B of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and in the Matter of Part 9 of the Planning and Development Act 2024

Between

Sheila Hoctor, Patrick Carney, John Dooley, Michael Mahon and Regina Hoctor

Applicants

and

An Coimisiún Pleanála

Respondent

and

Carrig Renewable Energy Limited

Notice Party

[2026] IEHC 65

[H.JR.2025.0001283]

THE HIGH COURT

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT

Judicial review – Planning and development – Declaratory relief – Applicants seeking an order of certiorari quashing planning permission – Whether the application was invalid

Facts: The applicants sought an order of certiorari quashing the decision of the respondent, An Coimisiún Pleanála (the commission), to grant planning permission for a development which decision Reference No. 318689/23 was made by order dated 30 June 2025, and such declarations of the legal rights and/or legal position of the applicants and/or the respondent and/or persons similarly situated as the High Court considered appropriate. The core grounds of challenge were as follows: (1) alleged invalid application; (2) property rights; (3) overhang; (4) waste; (5) mitigation; (7) noise; (9) lack of SEA of guidelines; (10) lack of particulars of project for EIA purposes; (11) defective AA; and (12) project-spitting. In the course of submissions, the applicants accepted a declaration as an answer to core ground 6, and withdrew core ground 8.

Held by Humphreys J that: (i) the applicants had failed to join necessary parties so as to challenge the wind energy guidelines and could not collaterally impugn the validity of those guidelines in improperly constituted proceedings such as these; (ii) the applicants’ points in relation to turbary rights were a ius tertii; (iii) the applicants proposed reading in to the planning regulations and legislation requirements (regarding (a) an alleged obligation requiring further detail of application documents, (b) the claimed duty of ensuring compliance with separate waste legislation, (c) the interpretation ruling out grid connection works in the manner proposed, (d) rights having the effect of sterilising the use of other land against any activity that causes noise) that were not there and that would not be workable; (vi) (a) the commission’s treatment of turbary rights could be construed as a valid assessment made on the assumption that the development was going to be carried out and (b) the conditions envisaged by EIA/AA material could be regarded as validly ascertainable; (v) the applicants had not discharged the onus of proof to demonstrate (a) any insufficiency in the particulars of the application documentation, (b) any safety impacts or obstruction of public rights of way, (c) any inadequacy of assessment of treatment of soil dug up for the purposes of the works, (d) the unreasonableness of the noise condition, or (e) error in EIA or AA; and (vi) if it had been necessary he would have exercised discretion against relief had there counterfactually been a breach of any of the technical domestic law points.

Humphreys J ordered that there be a declaration that the commission did not publish the inspectorate ecologist’s technical note dated 12 March 2025 by the third day following the making by the commission of its decision contrary to s. 146(5) and (7) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 up to 19 September 2025 when the technical note was published on the commission’s website under the title ‘Additional Inspector’s Report’. Insofar as concerned the validity of the impugned decision, Humphreys J ordered that the proceedings be otherwise dismissed.

Proceedings dismissed.

JUDGMENT of Humphreys J. delivered on Tuesday the 10 ^th day of February 2026

1 . The applicants launch a locally record-breaking 133 grounds of challenge to this renewable energy project in a case where the spirit of concision proved elusive all round – the statement of grounds extends to 17,619 words, the applicants' submissions weigh in at 19,577 words (almost double the default provision in PD HC126), and the opposing parties followed suit at 19,227 and 17,246 words respectively in submissions and 20,100 and 20,470 words respectively in statements of opposition (although no doubt the latter parties would point out the inherently reactive nature of their contributions). The statement of case provides a helpful summary boiling all of this down to a pocket-sized 20,227 words. The applicants emerge from this scholarly mudslide clutching one nugget of gold, namely the fact that the commission wrongly delayed in publishing a single document on its website, which should have been uploaded within three days after the decision was made. It is agreed that this omission warrants declaratory relief. That leaves the question of whether anything else in the case warrants any other relief.

Geographical context

2 . The proposed development ( https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/318689) consists of seven wind turbines and associated hardstand areas, one permanent 38 kV electrical substation which will be constructed in the townland of Faddan Beg, the proposed electrical substation consists of a single-storey control building with welfare facilities, all associated electrical plant and equipment, battery energy storage system, security fencing, all associated underground cabling, wastewater holding tank and all ancillary works and equipment, all works (within Co. Tipperary) associated with the connection of the proposed wind farm to the national electricity grid, via the provision of underground electrical cabling (38 kV) to the existing Dallow 110 kV substation in the townland of Clondallow, Co. Offaly, provision of ten joint bays, communication chambers and earth sheath links along the underground electrical cabling route, reinstatement of the road or track surface above the proposed cabling trench along existing roads and tracks, all associated underground electrical and communications cabling connecting the turbines to the proposed wind farm substation, one meteorological mast with a height of 107 m above ground and associated foundation and hard-standing area, upgrade of existing tracks and roads and the provision of new site access roads, all works associated with the provision of a new permanent site entrance off the L5040 local road, provision of five new access and egress points along the L5041 local road in the townlands of Cloncorig, Faddan More and Coolderry, provision of four peat repository areas and three spoil repository areas, two temporary construction compounds with temporary site offices and staff facilities, accommodation works along the public road network along the N52 national secondary road in the townland of Ballyloughnane to facilitate the delivery of turbine components and other abnormal sized loads, site drainage, tree felling, operational stage site signage, and all associated site development works, ancillary works and apparatus.

3 . The proposed wind farm is located in the townlands of Lissernane, Sharragh, Faddan More, Coolderry, Cloncorig, Arragh More and Clohaskin in Co. Tipperary, and the grid connection is located in the townlands of Faddan More, Ballaghgar, Doughkill, Faddan Beg, Caherhoereigh, Ballykinash, Tinlough, Cornhill, Tinnakilly, Killeen, Ballyloughnane and Croghan in Co. Tipperary and the townlands of Townparks, Dovegrove, Woodfield or Tullynisk and Clondallow in Co. Offaly. The majority of the proposed development including the seven turbines and associated infrastructure, on-site substation and 10.4 km of the underground grid connection cabling route is located in Co. Tipperary with the remaining 3.3 km of the grid connection cabling route located in Co. Offaly. The grid connection includes for underground 38 kV cabling from the proposed onsite 38 kV substation in the townland of Faddan More, to the existing Dallow 110 kV substation in the townland of Clondallow, Co. Offaly. The c. 13.7 km underground cabling route to Dallow is located primarily within the public road corridor, of which 10.4 km is located in Co. Tipperary and 3.3 km is located within Co. Offaly.

4 . Planning permission has been secured by the notice party for the section of the grid connection in Co. Offaly (OCC Reg. Ref. 23/60140), same was granted by Offaly County Council on or about 2 May 2024. That grant of permission was not appealed to the commission and is not challenged in these proceedings.

Facts

5 . The notice party submitted an application dated 22 September 2023 to Tipperary County Council (the council) in the first instance.

6 . The planning application was accompanied by a range of supporting documentation, including a Natura impact statement (NIS) and an environmental impact assessment report (EIAR).

7 . The five named applicants made third-party submissions on the planning application made to the council, with the issues raised in those submissions summarised in the council's planner's report dated 16 November 2023 (at section 6, internal pp. 14, 17, 18, 20; the issues raised in the third-party submissions to the council are also summarised in the report of the commission's inspector, dated 22 April 2025 on the subject appeal, at section 5.2).

8 . A number of prescribed bodies (namely Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), Uisce Éireann, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DAU)) made submissions on the planning application (these are summarised at section 5 of the council's planner's report dated 16 November 2023, and also in the report of the commission's inspector, dated 22 April 2025 on the subject appeal, at section 5.1).

9 . The council's planner's report dated 16 November 2023 (at section 12) recommended refusal of permission for three reasons that were then replicated/adopted in the council's decision to refuse permission.

10 . The application was the subject-matter of a decision by the council to...