Broadband report should have been disclosed by Commissioner for Environmental Information

Environmental & Planning law – appeal taken by the Commissioner of Environmental Information – High Court set aside a decision of the Commissioner insofar as he had refused to direct the disclosure of a report prepared by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources entitled “Analysis of Options for Potential State Intervention in the Role out of Next-Generation Broadband” – whether the Broadband Report amounted to “environmental information” within the meaning of Article 3 of the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 133 of 2007) – Article 13(1) of the 2007 Regulations – characterisation of the Report by the Commissioner – proper interpretation of the 2007 Regulations – Article 3(1)(c) of the 2007 Regulations – Article 3(1)(e) of the 2007 Regulations: costs benefit analysis – Commissioner’s conclusions to the contrary are in error, since the inferences he drew from the contents of the plan as to whether the N.B.P. was likely to affect the environment are simply not legally sustainable – Commissioner does not appear to have made an express finding that the economic analyses contained in the Broadband Plan were used in the N.B.P. – appeal dismissed subject to caveat