The High Court today recognised for the first time the constitutional right of Irish people to an environment that is consistent with the human dignity and well-being of citizens.
The judgement was made today in relation to a challenge brought by Friends of the Irish Environment against a decision to grant the Dublin Airport Authority a five-year extension to a 2007 planning permission for the construction of a third runway at Dublin Airport.
In support of its case, the Cork-based environmental group argued that the Irish constitution granted implicit environmental protections. While dismissing FiE’s challenge, Mr Justice Barrett recognised for the first time a constitutional right to environmental protection “that is consistent with the human dignity and well-being of citizens at large”.
In his judgement, Mr Justice Barrett said that such a right “is an essential condition for the fulfilment of all human rights”.
“It is an indispensable existential right that is enjoyed universally, yet which is vested personally as a right that presents and can be seen always to have presented, and to enjoy protection, under Art. 40.3.1 of the Constitution. It is not so utopian a right that it can never be enforced,” the judgement continues.
Source: Green News Ireland
