Licence for Cork oil exploration quashed in High Court

A licence for oil and gas exploration off the coast of Co. Cork, which was granted to a Dublin-based company, was quashed in the High Court yesterday (January 30).

The licence was originally granted to Exola Ltd, an oil and gas exploration investor based in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, by Richard Bruton, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

However, after a case was taken against Minister Bruton by environmental charity An Taisce in November 2018, the High Court decided in favour of the latter.

The licence had been granted in October 2018 for oil and gas exploration in the Barryroe oil and gas field – located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cork.

Presiding judge Seamus Noonan, who made the decision, explained that the licence would have allowed Exola to “conduct a seabed debris clearance, environmental baseline and habitat assessment site survey at the Barryroe oil accumulation”.

The parties in the case agreed that the first named respondent – i.e. Minister Bruton – would pay An Taisce’s legal costs.

An Taisce has claimed that the decision “is an important vindication of the public interest role” that the organisation says it plays.

It also said that it had taken the case on the basis of an environmental assessment process for the project, which had been carried out on July 23, 2018.

The court’s decision came on the same day that Minister Bruton addressed environmental issues at the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) AGM.

He told those in attendance that the Government’s main focus on industry would be “being competitive in a decarbonised world”.

He added that: “If this ends up with agriculture fighting with industry, transport or communities, then we will lose the battle to achieve the structural change that is our responsibility to deliver.”