From 26 February 2018 onwards, the first of a number of proposed
new measures aimed at combatting delays arising from Court
challenges to Strategic Infrastructure Developments (or
"SID") will come into effect. These proposals are timely,
with the National Planning Framework published on 16 February,
alongside the Government's capital spending plan for the next
decade.
The announcement of the proposals also comes against the
backdrop of several years of heavy activity in terms of judicial
review challenges to planning decisions, with a total of 170
judicial review applications having been taken against An Bord
Pleanála in the last five years. In terms of SID
applications, the Board granted permission for seven private SID
projects in 2016, and four of these were judicially reviewed. The
proposed Apple Data Centre was the subject of a judicial review
challenge, although its substation (which was SID) was not. Data
centres are not currently classed as SID. However, the
