Dunne v Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government

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Dunne v Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government was a 2007 Irish Supreme Court case about who should pay the costs in a public-interest legal challenge. The dispute concerned Carrickmines works on the M50 motorway in Dublin and whether parts of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004 were constitutional and compliant with EU law.

In the High Court, Judge Laffoy said the court could depart from the normal rule that the losing side pays costs if special circumstances existed. Dunne lost the case, but the High Court still awarded him his own costs.

Both sides appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, with five judges, unanimously dismissed Dunne’s appeal and overturned the High Court’s cost order. It held that, in general, the rule that costs follow the event should apply unless there are special circumstances to depart from it—and there were none in this case.

The result was that the State was entitled to the High Court costs, and Dunne was ordered to pay the costs of his appeal to the Supreme Court. The total cost to Dunne was about €500,000.