Latest news with #GarrettSimons
RTÉ News
05-06-2025
- RTÉ News
High Court gives go-ahead for Sceilg Mhichíl boat trips to resume
Boats will be permitted to ferry people to and from Sceilig Mhíchíl for the remainder of this summer following a ruling from the High Court. The UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is a special protected area for bird life, was due to open to visitors on 8 May. But legal action by unsuccessful operators in the latest competition for tenders prevented the scheduled opening. Tours to the island, which was a location for two of the Star Wars films, are in huge demand and the business is vital to the local economy and to boat operators. In December last year, the Office of Public Works (OPW) had a competition to award 15 permits for boat operators for Summer 2025 and onwards. The number of permits is limited to protect the island's fragile ecosystem. The successful applicants were contacted in late March. They can land a maximum of twelve passengers a day on Sceilg Mhíchíl during the landing season. Two unsuccessful participants in the competition brought High Court proceedings challenging the outcome. Their action, which is scheduled to last three days, will begin on 21 July. The legal challenge acted as an effective injunction preventing permits from being issued this summer, prohibiting the OPW from entering into legally binding contracts with the successful tenderers. The OPW made an urgent application to the court to seek permission to issue the permits for this year, which was heard earlier this week. Mr Justice Garrett Simons delivered his ruling today, finding that the potential prejudice to the unsuccessful tenderers was outweighed by the potential prejudice to the successful participants and the local economy if no landings at Sceilg Mhíchíl were to be permitted for a further six or seven weeks. He noted that one month of the season had already been lost. He granted the OPW's application to lift the automatic suspension on the issuing of permits, meaning permits can now be issued for the balance of the 2025 season. The judge noted the issues raised by the unsuccessful applicants in relation to the granting of the tender remain open for debate at the trial of the action next month.
Irish Examiner
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Skellig Michael boat trips can resume, court rules
The High Court has given the go ahead for boat trips to Skellig Michael to resume. Mr Justice Garrett Simons granted an application by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to lift an automatic suspension on landing at the Unesco heritage site and former monastic island, which was also used as a film location for the Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. The order will allow the OPW to enter into a legally binding contract with each of 15 boat operators who were successful in the public competition for permits to land on the island off the Kerry coast. The landing season runs from mid-May to the end of September each year. Those landing permits were automatically suspended when two unsuccessful bidders brought a High Court challenge to the decision. The OPW then had to apply to the court asking that the stay be lifted pending hearing of the substantive challenge. The unsuccessful bidders, Atlantic Endeavour Ltd and SMBT Ltd, trading as Skellig Michael Boat Trips, disagreed with the OPW interpretation of the legal effect of the automatic suspension. They contended there were a number of mechanisms open whereby landing permits might legitimately be granted to the successful tenderers for the balance of the 2025 season, while preserving their own right to challenge the allocation of landing permits for the 2026 and subsequent seasons. Mr Justice Simons heard the application to lift the suspension this week and on Thursday ordered that it be lifted. He said the practical effect of this order was that it would now be legally permissible for the OPW to issue landing permits to the 15 successful tenderers for the balance of the 2025 season. This will allow for the commencement of passenger landings at Skellig Michael, or Sceilg Mhichíl in Irish. He said his judgment entails no finding whatsoever on whether the outcome of the tender process allows the OPW to confine the right to land passengers on Sceilg Mhichíl to the 15 successful tenderers for a five-year period. The proper interpretation of the request for tender and associated documentation, and the legal consequences of the tender process, remain open for debate at the trial of the action, he said. The judgment, he said "goes no further" than deciding the execution of concession contracts does not result in the crystallisation of a contractual right on the part of the successful tenderers to exclusive landing rights for the 2026 and subsequent seasons. He said the significance of this finding was that the unsuccessful tenderers were not relegated to a claim for certain damages in respect of the 2026 and subsequent seasons. The only right which the OPW seeks to translate into a concluded contract, prior to the determination of the full High Court challenge, is confined to the 2025 landing season, he said. He said he was listing the substantive action for the alleged breaches of the public procurement legislation in July.
BreakingNews.ie
03-06-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Skellig Michael delayed boat permits row to be decided this week
A High Court judge has given "top priority" for a case involving the granting of boat permits to ferry people to Skellig Michael. Mr Justice Garrett Simon's will decide this week whether or not to lift a suspension on boating permits needed to bring tourists to and from the UNESCO heritage island Skellig Michael, saying "people's livelihoods are at stake". Advertisement The permits have not been issued while legal proceedings are before the courts in the form of a judicial review of the tendering process. At the High Court on Tuesday Mr Justice Garret Simons said he was "staggered" by the assertion made by lawyers for the Office of Public Works (OPW) claiming it would need six months to prepare the case and ordered it to be heard next month, giving it "top priority". The granting of permits to successful applicants was delayed as two companies who were unsuccessful in their applications for the 2025 season, which runs from May to the end of September launched a legal challenge. The OPW ran a competition in late 2024 to award 15 boating permits for summer 2025 and serving the monastic island, which was chosen as a film location for the Star Wars movies The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Advertisement However, in April 2025, two unsuccessful participants in the competition brought High Court proceedings challenging the outcome of the competition. The OPW has said that under Irish and EU law, the OPW was then precluded from issuing permits for the 2025 summer season until legal proceedings were resolved. Skellig Michael Boat Trips and Atlantic Endeavour Limited both dispute the process underpinning the granting of the licences, alleging it to be "deficient" and "without transparency" and have been granted permission for the challenge. At the High Court Davud Dodd BL, for the plaintiffs, told Mr Justice Simons that nobody wanted the boats to not visit the island and that permits could be granted by the court in an interim fashion, as the issuing of a one-season permit was not a "contract", as contended by the OPW. Advertisement 'Five-year framework' Mr Dodd said he was resisting a suggested "five-year framework" on the OPW's granting of the permits as part of a contract but that the plaintiffs also wanted to see the boats out. Mr Dodd said the OPW in applying to the court to have the suspension lifted had referred to a "contract" having to be in place for the boats to take to sea. Mr Dodd said there should be no such "contract" and that permits issued were akin to planning permission or a gun permit being granted, neither or which, he claimed, were "contracts" nor necessitated frameworks. Mr Dodd said that a permit is a statutory permit without an offer or an acceptance as found in a contract. Advertisement Whether or not this granting amounted to a "contract", was a matter for the full hearing of the substantive case, he said. "We are happy, however, for the suspension to be lifted," he said. Documents Mr Justice Simons asked Andrew Beck SC, for the OPW, how it was possible that the OPW was looking for six months to prepare the case in what the judge described as "the most straightforward case of competition for licences". Mr Beck said there was discovery of documents needed, amendments to make and a possible issue around cross examination. Mr Justice Simons said he was "staggered" that the case would take up to six months to get on and that there were "livelihoods" at stake. The judge said the court would give the case "top priority", adding that the court had "gone out of its way" to facilitate an early trial. Mr Justice Simons said he would rule on Thursday of this week on whether or not he would lift the suspension of the permits and adjourned the substantive hearing of the judicial review to July 21st.
