The High Court has quashed a decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) which gave the go-ahead to Aughinish Alumina refinery in Co Limerick to extend its Bauxite Residue Waste Area (BDRA) by 8 million cubic metres.
The plans by the Russian owned Aughinish Alumina Ltd (AAL) seek to extend the size of the BRDA containing the so-called “red mud” – which would also allow for the disposal of an additional 22,500 cubic metres of salt cake – is required is to facilitate the continuing operations of AAL’s alumina refinery on the Shannon estuary to 2039.
However, as a result of the successful High Court judicial review challenge brought by Environmental Trust Ireland (ETI) against the ACP March 2025 green light for the BRDA extension, Mr Justice David Holland has now remitted the case back to ACP for fresh consideration.
AAL operates the largest alumina refinery in Europe on the Shannon estuary and the proposed increase in the disposal capacity at the BRDA will result in an increase in the height of sections of the BRDA by 12 metres.
AAL already has phases one and two of the BRDA in place – bauxite residue is a non-hazardous waste while salt cake is a hazardous waste.
At the end of his comprehensive 177 page written ruling on the matter, Mr Justice Holland says that “this judgment does not find that the proposed development poses unacceptable risk – as to either flood risk or risk of seepage of alkaline effluent through its base”.
“Those are issues for the Commission to decide, not the courts. It is, rather, a decision that, as a matter of law, further and better consideration of those issues is required to inform a lawful decision whether the proposed development should be permitted,” he said.
AAL has been trying to secure planning permission for the BRDA for the past five years and first lodged plans direct to ACP in 2021.
Mr Justice Holland’s ruling is the second time that the High Court has quashed a grant of permission by ACP on the BRDA plans.
ACP granted planning permission for the BRDA in March 2025 after earlier rescinding its own decision to grant planning permission in October 2024 after discovering that the ACP inspector’s report which recommended a grant of permission had been prepared using artificial intelligence (AI) software.
The Commission subsequently destroyed hard copy and electronic copy versions of the Inspector’s report which used AI.
In his ruling concerning the March 2025 grant of permission, Mr Justice Holland quashed the ACP decision over the commission’s failure to have regard to the Limerick County Development Plan, in particular its Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA), as to flood risk.
Mr Justice Holland quashed the ACP on a second ground after finding the grant of permission irrational for want of an evidential basis for the conclusion that basal seepage through the base of the BRDA will continue to be negligible during the construction/operational phase of the proposed development, before its closure in or about 2039.
Mr Justice Holland has provisionally ruled that ETI should have its costs and has adjourned the case to 6 July for mention.
The plant on the Shannon Estuary has recently been at the centre of allegations that it has increased shipments of alumina to Russia, which in turn are ending up in Russian weapons systems being used against Ukraine arising from an Irish Times investigation carried out in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
Arising from the allegations and subsequent reporting, Taoiseach Micheál Martin ordered the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs, to review the plant’s operations.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
