Recent cases published on the Courts website are listed below.
Criminal Law
People (DPP) v O'Sullivan, Christopher
21/4/2026 No. 99/23 [2026] IECA 86
Criminal law - Sentencing - Offence of manslaughter - Sentence of life imprisonment imposed - Appellant appealing against sentence - Appellant contends that the judge erred in placing the offending within the category of 'worst cases' as identified in People (DPP) v Mahon [2019] 3 IR 151 - Whether the sentence imposed was excessive and disproportionate - Whether the sentence was one of preventative detention - Failure to have proper regard to the mitigating factors - Guilty plea - Expression of remorse - Disparity in the sentence imposed on the co-accused - Court identified no error in principle - Appeal dismissed
People (DPP) v O'Sullivan, Christopher
People (DPP) v G (M)
17/4/2026 No. 165CJA/2025 [2026] IECA 87
Criminal law - Sentencing - Offences of sexual assault and coercive control - Concurrent sentences imposed - Applicant seeking review of sentence on the grounds of undue leniency - Whether the judge in her nomination of headline sentences imposed - Whether the judge erred in affording undue and excessive reductions for the mitigating factors - Failure to attach adequate weight to the aggravating factors - Failure to have adequate regard to the principle of deterrence - Court finds the judge fell into error - Application granted
Criminal Procedure
McGuinness, Francis v DPP
12/5/2026 No. 2021 795 JR [2026] IEHC 290
Criminal procedure - Judicial review - Order of prohibition - Road traffic offences - Applicant orally convicted by the Circuit Court judge during an appeal from a District Court conviction - Circuit trial judge refused or failed to conclude the case to sentence stage before her retirement - Delay - Applicant's appeal still not concluded over 8 years after his appeal to the Circuit Court was lodged - Applicant seeking to bring to an end a summary prosecution brought against him - Whether it would be appropriate to proceed with the matter afresh in the Circuit Court before another Circuit Court Judge - Whether an oral conviction is a legally binding conviction barring retrial under the principle of autrefois convict - Court held that the appropriate course of action is that a different Circuit Court judge hear the appeal - Application refused
Employment Law
Murphy, Sabina v ION Trading Ireland Limited
8/5/2026 No. 2026 1248 P [2026] IEHC 288
Employment law - Plaintiff alleged that she was very badly treated by the defendant during her employment - Plaintiff seeking interlocutory relief - Damages sought for inter alia breach of contract, wrongful dismissal and reputational damage - Reinstatement of salary and employment status - Whether the plaintiff had established a strong case to be tried - Plaintiff resigned her employment with the defendant - Court held that there were statutory remedies provided for the plaintiff and she had not established a substantive cause of action - Court satisfied that the application is devoid of merit - Application refused
Murphy, Sabina v ION Trading Ireland Limited
European Arrest Warrant
Minister for Justice v Schroeder, Przemyslaw
8/5/2026 No. 2025 298 EXT [2026] IEHC 289
European arrest warrant - Applicant seeking the surrender of the respondent to Poland - Surrender sought for prosecution for fraud offences - Medical condition - Respondent objects to his surrender on the basis of conditions of detention in the issuing state given the respondent's particular medical diagnoses - Access to medical treatment - Guarantee - Issuing judicial authority confirmed access to professional medical care at the Remand Centre immediately upon admission and that the continuation of medical treatment by administering the prescribed medication to the provisionally detained on a regular basis is guaranteed - Objections rejected - Application granted
Minister for Justice v Schroeder, Przemyslaw
Family Law
V (U) v Z (Y)
16/4/2026 No. 2025 22 HLC [2026] IEHC 293
Family law - Child - Rights of custody - Breach - Wrongful removal - Child removed from Japan and brought to Ireland by the respondent father - Applicant seeking an order for the return of the child to Japan - Respondent disputes that the applicant was exercising rights of custody at the time of the removal - Grave risk of physical or psychological harm if child returned to Japan - Best interests of the child - Habitual residence - Court finds the applicant was at all material times exercising her rights of custody - Grave risk not established - Court orders the return of the child to Japan - Application granted
Immigration
Mateo, Violet v Minister for Justice
12/5/2026 No. 2025/298 [2026] IECA 82
Immigration - Residency - Appellant a Zimbabwean national and the mother of three adult children who reside in that country - Appellant seeking an order of certiorari to quash the respondent's decision to refuse the appellant's application under the respondent’s Scheme to Regularise Long-Term Undocumented Migrants in Ireland - Whether the decision was vitiated by the exclusion of all evidence of the appellant's residence in the State prior to 2018 - Whether the respondent's requirement of documentary proof of residence was irrational and unreasonable - Whether the respondent acted unreasonably in failing to consider third-party affidavit and letter evidence submitted by the appellant - whether the respondent's conclusion that the appellant submitted "no evidence" of financial transfers for her children constituted a fundamental error of fact that vitiated the decision - Court held the respondent may lawfully adopt whatever criteria he or she chooses, including the type of evidence that s/he is prepared to accept to prove that requirements have been met - Appeal dismissed
Mateo, Violet v Minister for Justice
Mental Health
Health Service Executive v J (P)
6/5/2026 No. 2025 497 MCA [2026] IEHC 291
Mental health - Capacity - Medical treatment - Consent - Ceiling of care - Applicant seeking a declaration of lawfulness to the ceiling of care - Respondent is a seventy-eight-year-old man detained in an approved centre - Respondent refuses all engagement with clinicians and refuses all medical treatment - Whether the respondent has capacity to make decisions concerning his medical treatment and his accommodation and care needs - Whether it was lawful to apply a ceiling of care excluding coercive interventions - Court finds the presumption of capacity had been rebutted - Court held the proposed ceiling of care was lawful and that all appropriate care would continue to be offered - Application granted
Health Service Executive v J (P)
Personal Injuries
Govers, Niall v Canurie Ltd t/a McGeough's Bar and Restaurant
8/5/2026 No. 2020/8108 P [2026] IEHC 287
Personal injuries - Damages claim - Plaintiff seeking damages for personal injuries - Plaintiff worked as a commis chef - Commercial blender - Blending sauce in an alcove - Plaintiff alleges that he had to squat in using the blender and could not stand straight - Back injury - Whether the defendant was liable - Failure to give the plaintiff training - Failure to provide manual handling training in relation to the use of blending equipment - Failure to carry out a risk assessment of the blending process - Contributory negligence - Plaintiff found to have failed to take any or any sufficient steps to avoid the accident - Damages awarded to the plaintiff in the sum of €74,000
Govers, Niall v Canurie Ltd t/a McGeough's Bar and Restaurant
Planning and Development
Walsh, John v An Coimisiún Pleanála, and Enda Quinn and Oonagh McElhinney (by order) (notice parties)
8/5/2026 No. 2025 595 JR [2026] IEHC 286
Planning and development - Judicial review - Application for planning permission - Proposed development - Change of use from residential to recreational camping site and the construction of six cabins - Applicant seeking to quash the respondent's decision denying development permission - Whether the decision was made based on presumptions rather than on the application merits - Whether decision in breach of fair procedures - Failure to give adequate reasons for the conclusion that the proposed development required car access - Onus of proof - Whether it is necessary for planning authorities to consider the workability and practical enforceability of proposed developments - Court finds the applicant has not overcome the onus - Proceedings dismissed
MKN Properties Ltd and J. Murphy Developments Ltd v Fingal County Council
8/5/2026 No. 2023 373 JR [2026] IEHC 282
Planning and development - Judicial review application - Zoning decision - Development Plan - Applicants seeking an order of certiorari by way of application for judicial review quashing the decision of the respondent - Whether the respondent's decision to change zoning objectives from a residential area to open space within the Development Plan were lawful - 'De-Zoning' - Ministerial guidelines - Interpretation - Whether the respondent provided sufficient reasoning for its decision to adopt a map-based objective regarding density - Whether the new development plan contradicts existing guidelines and objectives - Court held it is settled law that the elected members are entitled to change the zoning of land and that the court should be slow to interfere with their democratic decision in that regard - Proceedings dismissed
MKN Properties Ltd and J. Murphy Developments Ltd v Fingal County Council
Duffy, Michael v An Coimisiún Pleanála
8/5/2026 No. 2024 1016 JR [2026] IEHC 281
Planning and Development - Judicial review - Supermarket and fuel filling station development - Standing - Sufficient interest - Whether the applicant has standing to seek judicial review of a planning decision without having participated in the original application or appeal process and lacked proximity to the development site - Whether the applicant sufficiently demonstrated errors in the appropriate assessment screening - Challenge to the validity of site notices - Breaches of waste water discharge regulations - Onus of proof - Court held the applicant has failed to discharge the onus - Proceedings dismissed
Duffy, Michael v An Coimisiún Pleanála
Practice and Procedure
O'C (D) and K L v Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, Chief Bureau Officer, and ors
30/4/2026 Nos. 2025 246 JR; 2025 272 JR [2026] IEHC 261
Practice and procedure - Data protection - Access to information - Disclosure - Gardaí - Arrest of juvenile - Complaint concerning the level of force used by the gardaí - Investigation - Referral of specified information to Garda National Vetting Bureau - Investigation closed - Second and fourth respondents refused to inform the applicants of the content of the specified information - Whether the retention of specified information without allowing the applicants to access or challenge the information is a breach of constitutional rights and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights - Applicants seeking a declaration that the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 is repugnant to the Constitution - Court finds ss.10, 15 and 19 of the 2012 Act are repugnant to the provisions of the Constitution and are incompatible with the provisions of the Convention - Court held that the applicants had not established that the respondents had acted in breach of the provisions of the 2012 Act - Relief refused in part
O'C (D) and K L v Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, Chief Bureau Officer, and ors
Lynch, Kevin v Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland
19/5/2026 No. 2025/187 [2026] IECA 95
Practice and procedure - Personal injuries - Road traffic accident - Damages award - Bogus claim - Appellant appealing from the judgment and order which ordered the appellant to pay damages to the respondent - Appellant appealing against the trial judge's refusal to accede to an application under s. 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 - Whether the personal injury action should have been dismissed under s. 26 when the purportedly false and misleading claim was withdrawn before the trial without a verifying affidavit being sworn - Whether the decision of the trial judge was unsupported and contrary to the evidence - Court finds the trial judge's application of both the wording and the authorities on s. 26 were correct - Appeal dismissed
Lynch, Kevin v Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland
Property Law
International Investments ICAV v Blanche Retail Nominee Ltd
15/5/2026 No. 2026 1619 P [2026] IEHC 311
Property law - Easements - Lease agreement - Interference with access to shared car park - Injunctive relief - Plaintiff's application for interlocutory injunctive relief to prevent the defendant from continuing with works to remove car parking spaces to create a taxi area - Whether plaintiff's right to use the car park was a constitutionally protected property right - Damage to business - Whether interference with easement could be remedied by an award of damages - Balance of convenience - Court finds the plaintiff has failed to satisfy the court that damages would not be an adequate remedy for the loss it believed it would suffer - Application refused
International Investments ICAV v Blanche Retail Nominee Ltd
Coverage: All reserved written judgments published by the Courts Service are indexed on the Library Catalogue where they can be searched by party name, judge, subject, keyword and other filters. Members may log in to the catalogue with their solicitor number and library PIN, available by emailing libraryenquire@lawsociety.ie
