THE High Court has quashed a decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) which gave the go-ahead to Aughinish Alumina refinery in County Limerick to extend its Bauxite Residue Waste Area (BDRA) by eight million cubic metres.
The plans, by Russian-owned Aughinish Alumina, sought to extend the size of the BRDA containing the so-called ‘red mud’ – which would also allow for the disposal of an additional 22,500m3 of salt cake – to facilitate the continuing operations of the company’s alumina refinery on the Shannon estuary to 2039.
However, as a result of the successful High Court judicial review challenge brought by the Limerick-based Environmental Trust Ireland (ETI) against the commission’s March 2025 green light for the extension, Mr Justice David Holland in the High Court remitted the case back to ACP for fresh consideration.
Aughinish Alumina operates the largest alumina refinery in Europe from 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.
The planned extension has also been opposed by a Limerick group of farmers, the Cappagh Farmers Support Group, which contended before ACP that to add a further eight million cubic metres of bauxite residue would put significant pressure on the existing embankment walls, which are made up of crushed rock only.
The group also pointed to the impact of the BRDA on human and animal health and biodiversity, along with its impact on farming.
At the end of his comprehensive 177-page ruling on the matter, Mr Justice Holland said the “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.”
Aughinish Alumina 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 July 6 for mention.