What happens when Ireland tells Europe: too late, it’s final?
We know, because Ireland has tried it.
Derrybrien is a hill in south Galway. From 1998 onwards, wind turbines were consented on it in stages, on peat, without a proper environmental assessment.
In October 2003, during construction, the peat slid off the mountain into the river below. The European Commission told the Court it killed about 50,000 fish.
In 2008 Europe’s highest court found that Ireland had broken European law. The assessment should have been done.
So Ireland fixed it. Fully complied with a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, right? Well… Not so much.
Ireland’s answer was that the permissions had been granted years ago. Nobody had challenged them in time. So under Irish law the consents “can no longer be the subject of a direct application to a court” and have “therefore, become final”.
Final. We’re done here.
In 2019 the Court came back to it. “Ireland’s arguments must, however, be rejected.”
A country can’t use its own rules to get out of European law. And it isn’t only the government’s problem. “Every organ of that Member State and, in particular, those local authorities are required to take all measures necessary, within the sphere of their competence, to remedy the failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment of the wind farm”.
Local authorities. Like Fingal.
Then the Court sent the bill. €5 million up front, plus €15,000 for every day until Ireland complied. The daily fines ran for more than two years. Over €17 million in all, paid by the officials who made the decisions… Yeah, right! Paid by the Irish taxpayer.
Now the North Runway.
In 2008, the same year as the first Derrybrien judgment, the same Court looked at an airport in Liège. Assessing only the works and not the planes that would use them would be, in its word, “simplistic” (story 4 has that one).
In 2026 Fingal County Council looked at the North Runway permission and decided it governs the runway and how it’s used, but not where the planes fly. That leaves Ireland two answers. Either the routes are part of the permission, and flying different ones breaks them. Or they’re not, and nobody assessed the switch to the routes flown today.
The second answer is the one Fingal chose. It is also the one Derrybrien answered. A missing assessment doesn’t become legal because time passed. And, on our reading, the local authority is one of the bodies that has to fix it.
So, here’s where we’ve landed.
Final. We’re done here? That’s what Ireland told the Court last time. It cost over €17 million, and nobody who said it paid a cent. Everyone else did.
Sources
- Court of Justice of the European Union, judgment of 3 July 2008, Case C-215/06, Commission v Ireland: Ireland failed to fulfil its obligations under the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, including on the Derrybrien wind farm, consented from 1998; the European Commission’s account of the landslide of 16 October 2003 and the death of about 50,000 fish. CURIA: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-215/06&language=en
- Court of Justice of the European Union, judgment of 12 November 2019, Case C-261/18, Commission v Ireland (Derrybrien): Ireland’s argument that the consents had “become final”, its rejection by the Court, the duty of “every organ of that Member State”, and the lump sum of EUR 5 000 000 and daily penalty of EUR 15 000. CURIA: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-261/18&language=en
- Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, press release “European Commission confirms closing of Derrybrien infringement case”, 3 February 2023: the daily fines ran from 12 November 2019 until An Bord Pleanála’s refusal of substitute consent on 4 February 2022, with a final instalment of €1,245,000. The story’s total of over €17 million is NRTG’s calculation from these figures (€5 million plus €15,000 a day for 815 days). gov.ie: https://www.gov.ie/ga/an-roinn-tith%C3%ADochta-rialtais-%C3%A1it%C3%BAil-agus-oidhreachta/preaseisiuinti/european-commission-confirms-closing-of-derrybrien-infringement-case/
- Court of Justice of the European Union, judgment of 28 February 2008, Case C-2/07, Abraham and Others (Liège-Bierset airport): taking account only of the direct effects of the works would be “simplistic”. CURIA: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-2/07&language=en
- Fingal County Council, Senior Planner’s report under section 153 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, enforcement ref ENF22/166B, 18 September 2026, adopted by Chief Executive’s Order PENF/0193/2026 of 22 September 2026 (the North Runway permission does not regulate flight paths). Sent to NRTG by Fingal County Council on 29 September 2026 at NRTG’s request; NRTG holds a copy.