A local man is facing a legal bill of some €200,000 following his unsuccessful High Court challenge to the granting of planning permission for an incinerator near Duleek in Co Meath.
Mr Justice Smyth yesterday made a number of decisions regarding the costs of Mr Eric Martin's court proceedings which, legal sources estimate, will leave Mr Martin facing a bill of some €200,000.
The judge awarded An Bord Pleanála five days costs of the five-day hearing against Mr Martin, of Newlanes, Duleek. He also awarded the State three days costs against Mr Martin. Indaver Ireland, the developer of the proposed incinerator, is to get one- and-a-half days costs, also against Mr Martin.
The judge awarded Mr Martin two days costs against the State in light of the State's decision to abandon, during the case, a legal argument in relation to the nature of legal proceedings in which issues concerning the transposition of EU directives might be raised. The judge put a seven-day stay on his orders in the event of an appeal.
Last month, the judge dismissed Mr Martin's judicial review challenge on all grounds. However, he said he would ask the Supreme Court to make a final determination on an important point of law raised in the case and likely to affect similar environmental cases, including a challenge to the development of the State's first toxic waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
That question relates to whether an EU directive (EC 85/337) - relating to the carrying out of environmental impact assessments - has been properly transposed into Irish law.
While he himself had rejected Mr Martin's claim that the directive had not been properly transposed, the judge noted the issue of the transposition of the directive had implications for other legal cases and public projects and said he believed the issue should be finally determined.
The 25-acre site of the proposed incinerator development at Carranstown is about 3 km north of Duleek. Mr Martin is a retired production manager and a member of the No Incineration Alliance (a group of farmers, local residents and business people).