A court challenge that has stalled plans to house up to 1,000 male asylum seekers on a State-owned north Co Dublin site alleges breaches of environmental laws and pressure on transport and wastewater services.
Local group SMTW Environmental DAC also says the lack of public footpaths around the site means the occupants will cause a “significant traffic hazard and a health-and-safety issue”.
The group claims Minister for Integration Roderick O’Gorman incorrectly granted a statutory instrument confirming the Thornton Hall development did not need to be subject to two types of environmental assessment and An Bord Pleanála approval.
The decision “fails to engage meaningfully with the fact that 1,000 adult men being accommodated in the proposed development site are free to (and likely shall) walk along the rural roads, in an area that has a total population of approximately 300 people.
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“In the absence of strict control measures being put in place, the risk of interference with, and nuisance to, the local population is significant,” says the group, which represents local residents.
In an affidavit, Liam O’Gradaigh, a director and member of SMTW, said the group issued its case over “serious concerns regarding the lawful sustainability of the process” leading to the Minister’s signing of the statutory instrument.
He said he finds it “very troubling” that there is such a “paucity of information” about how the Minister determined that the environmental assessments and planning application were not required.
When the case was called on Monday, barrister David O’Brien, for SMTW, told the High Court that the Minister has agreed to revoke his statutory instrument. The court heard this revocation had not yet been exercised.
The Department of Integration told The Irish Times that works to prepare the site began on August 14th but have “paused” due to a court matter. A department spokesman said it is hoped works can recommence “as soon as possible”.
In legal documents, SMTW, represented by PB Cunningham & Co, says it has a “keen interest in environmental protection” and was established to ensure proper planning and sustainability of St Margaret’s, The Ward and surrounding areas.
In 2023 it unsuccessfully brought court proceedings, along with Friends of the Irish Environment, challenging a ministerial direction for Fingal County Council to remove Dublin Airport noise mitigation measures from its development plan.
The Thornton Hall case alleges the Minister failed to carry out lawful environmental assessments of the site under the EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats directives.
SMTW claims the ministerial order refers to the Minister being satisfied an environmental impact assessment is not required for the project. However, SMTW says, no screening determination is available and the Minister “has no competence to make such a determination”.
SMTW says there is “severe pressure” on the existing wastewater treatment plants in the area, and that proper assessment of the development must at least confirm that these can accept the material from the site. It points to a proposed housing development next to Thornton Hall that was recently refused permission because there was no foul sewer infrastructure to service it.
It alleges that the proposal to accommodate 1,000 men on the site yields an obligation to service 150,000 litres of wastewater daily or for the sewage to be treated on site. It says neither option has been properly assessed.
Traffic and transport constraints are also cited by the group, which says the main bus service is already over capacity and cannot cater to an additional 1,000 people.
The delay in accommodating the asylum seekers comes as figures show there were 2,831 international protection applicants “awaiting offer of accommodation” as of Friday.
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