Welcome to the website of
The Irish Environmental Law Association

Very many thanks to Sean Aherne BL and Michael J. Donnelly BL who delivered case law updates to our meeting on 3 December 2024. Details of our meetings in 2025 will be circulated to members in due course. 

This website offers Association members a key source of  information on environmental and planning law. Members can login to the Member’s Section at the bottom-right of the page, where copies of written papers and podcasts of all presentations delivered to members, are available. Membership is comprised of legal practitioners, industry/NGO members, state bodies, academic professionals and persons generally interested in the law as it relates to the environment and the planning system in Ireland.

The Association holds quarterly meetings, at which a guest speaker addresses matters of topical importance to members. Recent presentations to the association have included the following:

• The Hon. Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Chief Justice
• Niall Cussen, Ireland’s first Planning Regulator, on the Office of the Planning Regulator
• Professor Suzanne Kingston BL on the Influence of EU Law on Irish Environmental Law
• The Hon. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys
• Richard Harwood QC on the implications of ‘Brexit’ for EU and UK planning and environmental law
• Peter Tyndall, the Commissioner for Environmental Information, on the Access to Information on the Environment
• Sean Guerin, Senior Counsel, on environmental prosecutions
• Professor Yvonne Scannell on Reforming the Planning System
• Nuala Butler, Senior Counsel, on Attempts to Regulate Quarries under the Planning Acts
• Dr Aine Ryall on the Aarhus Convention and Access to Environmental Justice
• Laura Burke, Director General of the EPA, on addressing Climate Change

We also offer updates on recent case law and legislative developments for the planning and environmental law practitioner.

Association meetings are enlivened by healthy debate between members and the speakers on the topical matters of discussion and are therefore a very useful source of information for those interested in environmental law, particularly for practitioners, academics and those representing interest groups. Meetings are typically held in the Law School of Trinity College Dublin, although the location varies from time to time. Attendance qualifies for CPD points.

New members are welcome at any time, please click here for information on how to join the IELA.