Skellig Michael delayed boat permits row to be decided this week

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

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 Simons 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".
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 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.
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, David Dodd, counsel 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.
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.
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.
Mr Justice Simons asked Andrew Beck, counsel 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 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 21.