130 / 448
GAZETTE
APRIL /MAY 1996
Northern Ireland Planning
Law
by J A Dowling Gill & McMillan;
306 pp + Index; £35.
This is the first comprehensive text
book on Northern Ireland Planning
Law published since the major
statutory provisions of 1972. While
Planning Law is not likely to be an
area of activity that practitioners from
outside the jurisdiction would lightly
engage in, nonetheless the book may
well be of considerable assistance to
practitioners in this jurisdiction in
giving them an opportunity of
comparing how a particular planning
problem has been dealt with in a
neighbouring jurisdiction, though one
with a very different system of
planning control. By reason of the
relatively modest size of Northern
Ireland, planning control is much
more centralised than it is in the
Republic of Ireland or England and
Wales. Planning control is vested now
in the Department of the Environment
which has a duty to "formulate and
coordinate policy for securing orderly
and consistent development of land
and the planning of that
development". Thus the Department
has the obligation to prepare
development plans and in so doing to
consult with the District Councils.
Applications for planning permission
are made to the Department.
There is an independent Planning
Appeals Commission to whom
appeals against various decisions of
the Department may be taken. An
unusual feature of the Northern
Ireland situation is the power and
indeed obligation in certain
circumstances of the Appeals
Commission to hold public enquiries
to consider objections to a
development plan or the alteration,
repeal or replacement of a
development plan.
As a former practitioner it would be
natural to expect Dr. Dowling's book
to be user friendly and the reader will
not be disappointed in this regard. It is
difficult to imagine that planning
legislation and control in any
democratic society is likely to be
anything other than a minefield of
technicalities, as the interests of
conflicting sections of society are
catered for, but Dr. Dowling's book is
as readable as could reasonably be
expected and is a welcome addition to
the ranks of books on Irish law.
JFB
•
"Inland Waters"
Environmental Legislation
Edited by Donal O'Laoghaire, B.L.
Published by Butterworths; 510pp;
£51.50.
With the ever-increasing cascade of
Directives emanating from the
European Community, and the
domestic legislation required to be
enacted in consequence, it has become
very difficult for the specialist and
well nigh impossible for the ordinary
practitioner to keep aware of all the
extant legislation.
The law and practice relating to
pollution control in Ireland as prepared
by Yvonne Scannell encompassed in
its considerations the entire
environment, including not only inland
waters but also the sea, the shores, the
atmosphere, noise and vibration, and
went on to deal with the law and
practice relating to protection of the
environment, in a very comprehensive,
precise and erudite fashion.
"Inland Waters",
as is stated in its
preface, "is intended to make National
and European environmental
legislation on inland waters available
in an accessible and easy to use
format". I consider that it has more
than excellently achieved its stated
objective. While this book of course
includes legislation relevant to control
of pollution, it deals comprehensively
with the entire legislation relevant to
inland waters.
People whose work requires them to
have an intimate knowledge of the
statutory provisions in regard to any
aspect of inland waters now have the
benefit of a publication which is
devoted exclusively to this subject.
Section 1 contains the primary Irish
legislation. In addition to containing
in their entirety the Local Government
(Water Pollution) Act, 1977 and the
amending Act of 1990, this section
also reproduces the more relevant
sections of other Acts, and the
relevant legislation under the headings
of Provision of Water Supplies,
Treatment of Sewage and Control of
Water Pollution in the Fisheries Acts,
1959-1990. In all instances there are
generous annotations with
amendments, definitions, cross-
references and notes.
Section 2 contains the secondary Irish
legislation dealing with a total of 22
Statutory Instruments covering the
spectrum from water for human
consumption to fisheries, chemical
pollutants and quality of bathing
waters. Section 3 covers E.U.
legislation and identifies and deals
with a total of 19 Council Directives.
There are a total of five appendices.
These contain precedent documents
relevant to the granting of discharge
licences by a Local Authority, a
reproduction of the First Schedule to
the Environmental Protection Act,
1992, and a list of Designated Areas
under water quality legislation.
If you ever stayed awake at night
wondering what exactly "lindane"
might be, the fine index in this book
will lead you to the explanation that it
"means a product containing at least
99% of the y-isomer of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- hexachlorocyclohexane". A "Table
of Cases" is included which I feel
does less than justice to the text and
omits at least some of the useful cases
referred to in the text. The author
references the case of
Noel Considine
-v-
Shannon Regional Fisheries Board
and Others
( 1 9 9 4- 1 ILRM 499)
which was a High Court decision,
finding that a defendant who has been
acquitted in the District Court of
charges under certain sections of the
Fisheries Acts is not immune from re-
trial on appeal by the Fishery Board.
! This case has not been included in the
Table of Cases nor has it been
mentioned that it is currently under
appeal. The Table of Cases includes
the case of
Maguire
-v-
Shannon
Regional Fisheries Board
which finds
114