The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a fisherman against the refusal of a former minister for arts, heritage, Gaeltacht and the islands to grant him a permit to land passengers on Skellig Michael rock, off Co Kerry.
In May 2001, Mr Timothy Casey (46), West End, Portmagee, had sought a number of orders, including a declaration that the procedures employed by the then minister in assessing his suitability for the permit was unfair, in breach of natural justice and invalid.
The High Court heard Skellig Michael is a particularly valuable site because, with the exception of one collapsed church, it is constructed entirely of dry stone. There is no mortar, not even in the enormous retaining walls. The unique nature of the site has been recognised by UNESCO, which designated it a World Heritage Site in 1996. The entire island is a national monument.
The then minister, Ms Síle de Valera, in a statement of opposition, denied she had operated an arbitrary and unfair policy in the allocation of landing permits. It was pleaded that the policy was appropriate in the contexts of preserving Skellig Michael and of protecting visitors' safety.
Giving the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court yesterday, Mr Justice Murray, sitting with Ms Justice McGuinness and Mr Justice McCracken, said that the then minister had at all times acted within the scope and ambit of her powers.
In a 36-page judgment, Mr Justice Murray said one of the major problems facing those charged with the protection and preservation of the unique site had been the yearly growth in the number of visitors. In the 1970s, there were only four boatmen making the trip with visitors. Detailed records of the number of visitors began in 1987.
By 1995, the number of visitors to the island had increased to 12,665 over 107 days. There was some drop in visitors in 1997 and 1998 but this was due to poor summer weather.
In part, those developments had been made possible by the arrival of newer, faster boats which could make the journey to the Skellig rocks in less than half the time previously possible. It had been rare for a boat to make more than one trip per day but now four or five such trips were possible by a single boat.
According to uncontested evidence, the increased number of visitors since 1987 had caused noticeable wear and damage to many aspects of the old monastery on Skellig Michael. In light of a report of the Monuments Service in 1994, it was decided to introduce a formal management plan to control the ever-increasing number of visitors by limiting the number of boat owners who could land visitors.
Seven grounds of appeal had been advanced by Mr Casey and were opposed by the minister.
The Supreme Court said it was clear the minister was entitled, according to the National Monuments Act, to take measures for purposes such as the times the monument was open to the public and, in particular, manage, control and limit the numbers entering the site.