Full coverage: Planning

"Ultimately the problem is that if our society wants fireworks, they have to be stored somewhere," the High Court found in a legal challenge that meshed spectacle, rural enterprise, and legal ingenuity.

Cathal O’Connor has weeks to put his business affairs in order before starting a custodial sentence for the violent assault of three teens. The Currency examines the scale of the property network, multi-million euro assets, and projects in the pipeline.

The EPA is in a decade-long battle with Harte Peat over extraction outside of the regulatory system. Now, the environmental watchdog is putting pressure on Roscommon County Council to crack down on recently discovered activity in the midlands county.

For the fifth time in one month, extensive High Court time was devoted to sorting out the rights of sea users under what the judge described as “a somewhat obscure licensing system”.

Dublin City Council’s refusal to grant planning permission for the 463-bed tourist hostel in the city centre has now been overturned on appeal by a property vehicle owned by the waste magnate.

The State bought the hotel for €148m last August but a 12-month contract is in place to continue managing the centre, with a six-month extension option. Separately, South Dublin County Council has flagged fire safety and disability access issues with the justice department.

At a critical junction for the State’s planning system, released records show housing officials were briefed about a "critical risk" the Office of the Planning Regulator won't meet its expanded oversight remit under the new planning act due to well-flagged staff and funding constraints.

An Taisce brought the planning appeal against the grant of retention planning to Sunville Construction Ltd, a company owned by the political dynasty, to keep processing rock at a quarry near Crohane. The rock is used in road construction, and clients include the local authority.

An Coimisiún Pleanála made an “error of law” in refusing permission to a Laois wind farm, the Supreme Court found – but a key section of the Climate Act cannot “carry the full weight of the State’s response to climate change”.

An Coimisiún Pleanála’s 2024 decision to refuse permission for the ambitious 24-storey building was recently quashed by the High Court, paving the way for the new application from Ventaway Limited.