Tears of joy as Court of Appeal rules Edwin Poots' Larne Lough gas caverns decision was 'irrational'

No Gas Caverns campaigners shed “tears of joy” after the Court of Appeal ruled Edwin Poots acted “irrationally” in approving a major fossil fuel storage project under Larne Lough. Harland & Wolff subsidiary, Islandmagee Energy, wants to hollow out seven 1,350m deep caverns to store gas under the protected lake after pumping thousands of tonnes of hot, salty brine into the sea.

Campaigners feared it would make 450m2 of seabed unliveable, impact 11 priority species, the food web and Isle of Muck Nature Reserve. But the project was handed a marine licence by former environment minister Edwin Poots in March 2021.

Concerned locals, supported by Friends of the Earth NI and the PILS Project, took a judicial review against his decision.

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Justice Michael Humphreys dismissed the judicial review at the High Court last August, saying Mr Poots’ decision was ‘lawful’.

But a subsequent appeal was launched on two grounds - Edwin Poots’ failure to refer the application to the Executive as it was cross-cutting, controversial and significant; and him taking into account “an irrelevant consideration” in the shape of a community fund to mitigate impacts of the development.

After listening to the arguments, a panel of three judges led by Lady Chief Justice, Dame Siobhan Keegan, upheld both points.

Northern Ireland’s top judge highlighted the scheme’s potential to lock the country into fossil fuel dependency for the next 40 years and said it had obvious implications for NI’s net-zero climate policy.

She told the court: “The Ministerial decision as it stands, effectively means this gas storage proposal is not deemed a significant and controversial project.

“This is a decision which we find to be irrational for reasons… including the interface with climate commitments in Northern Ireland.”

Stressing that the court was only dealing with the legality of the decision-making process, Dame Siobhan acknowledged competing interests between economic benefits and those opposed to fossil fuels.

“An obvious tension arises,” she said.

“In addition, a highly important issue of energy security requires decisions to be made.”

But the judge concluded: “Given the trajectory of decision making, we do not consider that what we are dealing with is an inadvertent breach of the Ministerial Code.”

Lisa Dobbie from No Gas Caverns told us: “I am absolutely amazed.”

Describing the outcome as “stunning”, she added: “It’s not every Monday you change the way environmental decision making works in Northern Ireland. Challenging this nature wrecking project took over our lives for the past five years. It’s been so all consuming, we almost don’t know what to do tomorrow now.”

Friends of the Earth NI director, James Orr, said: “We feel totally vindicated. It wasn’t that long ago that Minister Poots went to court to defend the decision and say the department’s decision on the licence was fully compliant with the law.

“Now we’ve got a decision to say it was not just ‘irrational’ but also unlawful.

“We are delighted for the community, the climate and also wildlife around Larne Lough. There were tears of joy because the community has borne so much hurt and pain over this with very little support from government agencies to protect the environment.

“It just shows you what can happen when a determined community stands up for their patch.

“The judgement was unanimous and it has clearly set a new direction for climate litigation.”

Acting solicitor, Maria O’Loan from leading Belfast law firm Tughans LLP, said: “This is a very important decision, that clarifies the law around decision making in Northern Ireland generally - not just in respect of environmental decisions.

“The court very much emphasised the importance of the road to net zero and policies around that [and] reached the conclusion the gas caverns project was significant, controversial and cross cutting.”

A decision is yet to be made on whether the project’s marine licence will be quashed. A DAERA spokesperson said: "DAERA will consider the full written court judgment and its implications very carefully once it is available and will be making no further comment at this stage."

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