Planning and Development Act 2024
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Court may compel compliance with notice under section 339 | ||
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341. (1) Where a person served with a notice under section 339 fails to comply with a requirement of the notice, or causes or permits a person to fail to comply with such a requirement, the High Court or the Circuit Court may, on the application of the planning authority, order any person to comply with the notice or to do, refrain from doing or cease doing anything that the court considers necessary or expedient to ensure compliance with the terms of the notice, including requiring such person as the court may order to carry out any works, including the restoration, demolition, removal, alteration, replacement, maintenance, repair or cleaning of any structure or other feature referred to in the notice, or the discontinuance of any use, or continuance thereof subject to such conditions as are specified in the order. | ||
(2) (a) An application to the High Court or the Circuit Court for an order under subsection (1) shall be by motion and the Court when considering the matter may make such interim or interlocutory order, if any, as it considers appropriate. | ||
(b) The order by which an application under this section is determined may contain such terms and conditions (if any) as to the payment of costs as the Court considers appropriate. | ||
(3) (a) An application under subsection (1) to the Circuit Court shall be made to the judge of the Circuit Court for the circuit in which the land the subject of the application is situated. | ||
(b) The Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine an application under this section where the market value of the land referred to in the notice the subject of the application does not exceed €3,000,000. | ||
(c) Where the market value of any land referred to in the notice the subject of the application under this section exceeds €3,000,000, the Circuit Court shall, if an application is made to it in that behalf by any party to the proceedings, transfer the proceedings to the High Court, but any order made or act done in the course of such proceedings before the transfer is ordered shall be valid unless discharged or varied by order of the High Court. | ||
(4) The court shall, unless it is satisfied that there are special and substantial reasons for not so doing, order a person who is the subject of an order under this section to pay to the planning authority the costs and expenses of the action. | ||
(5) Costs or expenses to be paid to the planning authority under subsection (4) shall include any such costs or expenses reasonably incurred by the planning authority in relation to the investigation of the matter the subject of the proceedings, including costs incurred in respect of the remuneration and other expenses of employees, consultants and advisers. | ||
(6) An order made under subsection (4) may contain such terms and conditions as to the payment of such costs and expenses as the court considers appropriate. | ||
(7) Where an application under this section is commenced in the High Court in circumstances where the Circuit Court would have had jurisdiction to hear and determine the application if it was commenced in the Circuit Court, and an order is made in favour of the planning authority (either by the High Court or by the Circuit Court following a remittal of the application)— | ||
(a) the planning authority shall not be entitled to recover more costs than it would have been entitled to recover if the proceedings had been commenced and determined in the Circuit Court, and | ||
(b) the court may, if it considers it appropriate to do so, make an order for the payment to the respondent in the proceedings by the planning authority of an amount not exceeding whichever of the following the court considers appropriate: | ||
(i) the amount, measured by the judge, of the additional costs as between party and party incurred in the proceedings by the respondent by reason of the fact that the proceedings were not commenced and determined in the Circuit Court; | ||
(ii) an amount equal to the difference between— | ||
(I) the amount of the costs as between party and party incurred in the proceedings by the respondent as measured by the Legal Costs Adjudicators of the High Court or, if the proceedings were heard and determined in the Circuit Court, the appropriate county registrar, and | ||
(II) the amount of the costs as between party and party incurred in the proceedings by the respondent as measured by the Legal Costs Adjudicators of the High Court or, if the proceedings were heard and determined in the Circuit Court, the appropriate county registrar on a scale that he considers would have been appropriate if the proceedings had been heard and determined in the Circuit Court. | ||
(8) A planning authority that has been awarded costs under subsection (5) of this subsection may, without prejudice to its right to recover the costs from the person against whom they were awarded, set off the whole or part thereof against any costs in the proceedings concerned awarded to the latter person against the planning authority. |