Aarhus Convention did not require winning party to pay costs of losing party

The High Court has made no order as to costs for a module of a challenge to a decision of An Bord Pleanala, and dismissed an applicants' request to reserve their costs instead. The applicants had unsuccessfully challenged the modularisation of the case and the handling of costs related to a conceded point. The court found no merit in the applicants' arguments, including their anticipation of success on a separate issue of a derogation licence, and their assertion that the costs order should be "fair and equitable" under the Aarhus Convention. The court emphasized that the applicants are not entitled to costs for points on which they lost and that the Aarhus Convention does not require winning parties to pay the costs of losing parties. The court also reserved the developer's costs for the application to vary the provisional order, including two specific listing dates, with further discussion on costs to be welcomed at a later stage.