Dr Orla Kelleher’s current research focuses on environmental rights, climate law and litigation, climate justice, and just transitions. She states: ‘Ireland has not typically adopted a ‘best in class’ approach, or a ‘gold-plating’ of EU environmental law.’
In recent weeks, journalists, developers, tech entrepreneurs, the Minister for the Environment, and now even the Taoiseach have lined up to blame public participation in the planning system, environmental judicial reviews, and the so-called ‘gold-plating’ of EU law for delaying new housing developments and key public infrastructure projects.
The purpose of this article is to put forward an alternative view: that restricting access to justice in environmental matters is unlikely to speed up the completion of housing and infrastructure (or dramatically reduce the costs).
What it will do is undermine one of the few accountability tools we have left to hold our government to account in the midst of the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.