Leading environmental groups call on Minister to scrap the consultation on changes to legal cost rules for environmental cases 

An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment have written to Minister Darragh O’Brien to scrap a consultation on changes to the rules on the legal costs that NGOs, civil society groups and members of public could recover following successful environmental judicial reviews. 

The regulation of legal costs is a critical factor allowing members of the public and organisations to go to court to protect the environment by enforcing environmental law. It is widely recognised that high costs in the Irish legal system are a significant financial barrier for the public. 

The Minister launched a consultation on 3 December 2025 with a proposal to cap the costs that litigants who win their case can recover at levels that would expose them to costs of over €100 thousand in a typical environmental case. This would not only effectively stop most public interest environmental litigation, but it is unlawful under EU law and international law that Ireland has signed up to. 

According to the organisations, the consultation has been carried out in a way that is so unfair that it is in fact unlawful: 

• The consultation is presented as a fait-accompli and not at the formative stage when public input should be sought to shape the proposals;
• The information presented is confusing and incomprehensible. It fails to explain the State’s legal obligations clearly and simply or how they have been met;
• Key factors including information about how much litigation would actually cost applicants consequent on the proposal have not been disclosed;
• Critical research was not published until 23 December, almost three weeks after the consultation began;
• The consultation ran over the very busy Christmas/New Year holiday period, and many members of the public may only find out about this additional complex information until much later given the holiday break, with the deadline for the consultation being just next Thursday, 15th January.
• Certain public sector parties who are regularly involved in litigation as respondents were involved in the preparation of the consultation to the exclusion of other stakeholders such as the public who act as applicants.

According to FIE, “This consultation has profound implications for the environment, the public and Ireland’s legal obligations, but despite over two years’ of preparatory work it was rushed out over Christmas with critical information drip-fed to the public.” 

According to An Taisce, “This is a wholly inappropriate way to hold a consultation, not least by the Department with responsibility for the Aarhus Convention on the rights to public participation and access to justice. We have been contacted by numerous members of the public asking us to explain the consequences of the proposed costs caps. The information is so confusing and unclear that we have had to conduct our own information seminar and put together materials to inform the public, at least to the extent we can given the serious deficits in the information provided.” 

The Minister is called upon to go back to the drawing board and start with a clean slate on legal costs and to withdraw the consultation.  

Letter to Minister O'Brien available via this link