Latest: Two Apple objectors refused permission to take case to Court of Appeal
Two objectors to an €850m data centre in Athenry, Co. Galway have been refused permission to take their case to the Court of Appeal.
They wanted to appeal the Commercial Court’s decision to uphold the granting of planning permission by An Bord Pleanála.
They claimed the planning board failed to take account of the potential environmental impact of the project as a whole.
But Mr. Justice Paul McDermott didn’t feel they raised any issues of “exceptional public importance” to warrant an appeal.
Noel Doherty from the campaign group ‘Athenry for Apple’ says he hopes work will start straight away.
He said: "This has been going on now since 2015, hopefully this is the end of it and Apple will come quite quickly and turn the sod in the site and hopefully the building will start soon."
Two objectors to an €850m data centre in Athenry, Co. Galway are due to find out this morning if they can appeal their failed legal challenge.
They claim there are issues of 'exceptional public importance' that need to be clarified.
On October, 12 Mr. J Paul McDermott decided to uphold An Bord Pleanála’s granting of planning permission to Apple for its €850m data centre.
Just five days later, two local objectors indicated their decision to seek permission to appeal the judgement.
They have accused the planning board of granting permission for one data hall without fully considering the environmental impact of a development that could see another seven built.
They claim their case is worthy of an appeal because it raises five issues of "exceptional public importance" that should be considered in "the public interest".
The planning board disagrees and has accused them of pursing an appeal just because they are not happy with the outcome of the judicial review.
A decision on whether they will be allowed to appeal will be made today.
