Moves to reform judicial reviews in relation to the planning system will go ahead as proposed, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, the minister confirmed that plans to move certain judicial review cases, relating to immigration, citizenship and asylum, from the High Court to the Circuit Court have been dropped.
However, he said that the proposed Civil Reform Bill 2025 would be "one of the most reforming pieces of legislation, and it will transform judicial review in Ireland".
The minister said that the central measure of the new bill in relation to planning judicial reviews, a test of general public good, would be retained.
He said the purpose is to balance the rights of litigants and also the corresponding right of the "general public good to ensure that infrastructure projects aren’t delayed in terms of excessive judicial reviews".
Mr O'Callaghan confirmed the goal of reducing the number of judicial reviews being taken in relation to infrastructure would not be impacted.
He said he is committed that the legislation will be introduced by the final quarter of this year, and he wants "to see it enacted as soon as possible".
Read More: Proposal over moving specific judicial review cases to Circuit Court dropped
Chair of the Bar of Ireland Council Sean Guerin said that the public impression that judicial reviews are mainly used by objectors to stop or delay projects is wrong.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland he said: "You have to ask the reason for the increase in the number of judicial reviews."
He said that the Bar of Ireland hosted a conference recently where there was evidence that showed that the increase in the number of planning judicial reviews is largely driven by developers.
"So, those are pro-development judicial reviews. What people are drawing from simply the increase in the number of judicial reviews, is an argument to suggest that judicial review is being used to stymie or halt development."
Mr Guerin welcomed the decision not to move some judicial review cases, relating to immigration, citizenship and asylum, from the High Court to the Circuit Court.
"Cases dealt with in the Circuit Court are short and they tend to be capable of dealing with multiple cases in an individual day," he said.
"Judicial reviews are important because judicial review is the legal mechanism for protecting individual citizens when the State exercises power over their lives.
"And it's the mechanism for ensuring that that power is exercised lawfully and fairly in terms of giving citizens fair procedures in their dealings with the State.
"Those are important issues. They should be dealt with in the High Court."
Mr Guerin said that the Bar Council opposition to the proposed Civil Reform Bill 2025 was based on its view that the bill was designed to throw up impediments to people accessing the courts.
He dismissed allegations that barristers were opposed to the reform because it would cost them money.
"Our real concern is that important and powerful interests use the fact that barristers earn money for doing their job, the same as everyone else, as an excuse for advancing arguments that are designed to restrict ordinary citizens' access to the courts.
"And people should be very jealous to guard their right of access to the courts and should be very careful of arguments that are deployed by powerful interests framed as targeting lawyers' fees, but which are in fact used to target the lawyers' clients and to deprive them of their right of access to the courts."
He said that the Bar Council supports the proposal to put judicial review on a statutory footing as well as recommendations in the Kelly Report in 2020, of a range of reforms across the whole area of civil practice, including judicial review.
He said that many of the proposals in the new bill go further than the Kelly Report recommended and that "the effect in significant respects would be to reduce ordinary citizens’ access to the courts for the purpose of protecting themselves against the abuse of power and illegal action by the State".
