THE people of a Co Kildare village who lost their challenge to the siting of the State's biggest dump at Arthurstown have been told by the High Court they cannot take their case to the European Court.
Last May, the High Court rejected the challenge by the residents to the opening of a 150 acre dump at Arthurstown, Kill. It is planned that the dump would take about five million tonnes of waste from Dublin over 10 years.
At a later hearing, Mr Justice Barr refused permission for the residents to bring an appeal against his original decision to the Supreme Court.
The residents then sought an order of reference to the Court, of Justice of the European Union under Article 177(3) of the Treaty of Rome on questions concerning the interpretation of EU law.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Barr said he was satisfied it was now too late for the residents to seek to invoke Article 177 and that the High Court, having delivered, final judgment, had no longer any function in the matter.
It had been open to the residents to request the High Court at the substantive hearing to seek a ruling from the European Court under Article 177 on the point of European law at issue or to seek liberty to make such an application if the High Court was disposed to hold against them on the point. In fact, the matter of seeking a ruling from the Court of Justice under Article 177 was not raised prior to the final judgment in the case.
Mr Justice Barr said that in the light of the wording of Article 177, he was satisfied that a rule of the Court of Justice, being the benefit of a national court, must be made while the case in question was pending before latter court prior to its final judgment.
It was universally accepted the purpose of that article was provide a consultative procedure whereby national courts may obtain rulings on matters of European law from the Court of Justice. It was not an appeal procedure but was consultative only.
In short, the purpose of such rulings was to guide national courts of the Eli on matters of European law in cases pending before such courts. The procedure had been put in place to ensure, as far as possible, that European law was uniformly interpreted and applied by national courts.
Once final judgment had been delivered, the case had been decided. The national court then had no further function in the matter and the time for advice by the Court of Justice had manifestly gone.
The chairman of Kill Residents Group, Mr Patrick McNamara, said afterwards that while they were disappointed with yesterday's High Court result, they intended to appeal it to the Supreme Court.