In September 2024, a hardware and electrical wholesaler in west Dublin took a legal case in which it sought to block a €1 billion project to bring the Dart rail network to Kildare and Meath.
The judicial review action by Burke Brothers, based at Navan Road, and a separate but similar case by motor distributor Gowan, a landowner in the same area, were scheduled to be heard in the High Court in June 2025.
At issue was planning consent for the Dart+ West plan, designed to bring the commuter rail service into Maynooth, Co Kildare, and the M3 Parkway near Dunboyne, Co Meath.
This long-stalled project had been in preparation for two decades, the aim being to boost public transport capacity in the growing commuter hinterland of the capital city. Court proceedings were certain to introduce more delays, increasing costs even if the judge dismissed the legal challenge. But the case did not go ahead in the end.
On the day the case was to open, Irish Rail let it be known it had reached a “confidential settlement” with the litigants. The proceedings were withdrawn, clearing the way for Dart+ West to go ahead.
Nothing was declared publicly about the settlement terms, although the deal was similar to recent agreements by two State bodies to buy out objectors to MetroLink and housing in Dublin. Such arrangements were made at significant expense to taxpayers. The State paid €2 million or more for each of five homes whose sale was registered in different Dublin locations this year.
Such cases have drawn attention to something that usually happens without public scrutiny – or in the realm of compulsory purchase orders, where the State compels property owners to sell to make way for a road or other infrastructure in return for payment.
A high-level public official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the calculation made in legal cases is that settlement costs will be far less than the eventual cost of further delaying the project.
At the same time, it was recognised that settling in the legal arena would involve paying “a little over the odds” for the asset.
“I assume they have been given the nod,” the official said, citing the need for “political consent” for such agreements. In other words, ministers with responsibility for State bodies should be in the loop whenever such bodies make unusual transactions.
Court cases can run for years – and that’s often before any appeals. Given rapid construction inflation and the already high cost of building public infrastructure, the official said litigation in a single case can add hundreds of millions of euro to the cost of a project while no actual progress was being made.
For instance, the cost of the long-delayed Greater Dublin Drainage wastewater scheme was estimated in the region of €500 million in 2017-2018. After prolonged legal and planning wrangles, the latest cost forecasts are in a range between €1.9 billion and €2.3 billion.
Such examples are hardly unique. Citing such costs and a political drive to push ahead with big infrastructure projects, the official said buying up houses or company lands to settle litigation was pragmatic.
A business leader who has frequent engagements with Government figures concurred. “At the end of the day, I think it’s a smart investment,” he said, adding that State agencies should be “extremely careful that they are not held to ransom” with settlement costs ballooning.
“If I was faced [with this] in a private business situation, I’d weigh one against the other. If, on one hand, it’s going to cost me €2.1 million and, on the other hand, it’s a problem that’s not going away and it could end up costing me €15 million, it’s an easy decision to make.”
For all that, another observer noted the risk that such deals could encourage potential litigants to initiate action in the hope that the State might pay upfront to settle. That assumes the prospective plaintiffs have money for their own lawyers – and defendant lawyers if they take the case and lose – and that their property stands right in the way of critical infrastructure.
The extent to which State bodies might settle remains unclear.
Uisce Éireann said it has never bought property to settle a judicial review. The water authority faces seven active cases, so would it consider buying property to settle such litigation? “Uisce Éireann is not in a position to comment on existing or apprehended legal proceedings,” it replied.
In the Dart+ West cases, Irish Rail has said the litigants would have been party “in the normal course of events” to a compulsory-purchase-order process.
When three Burke Brothers companies filed financial statements for 2025 in the Companies Office last week, they appeared to cast light on the settlement terms.
The accounts for Burke Brothers Son & Company, signed off in late September, show that the business received €5.28 million for “compensation in respect of anticipated future business interruption that will arise”.
This is because the business will be required to vacate its current location in 2028 “as a result of the sale of the premises from which the company currently operates”. As a result, the company faces substantial relocation costs.
Accounts for a related business known as Burke Capital show that it disposed of €3.5 million in freehold property and €2.1 million in buildings during 2025. Separate Land Registry documents show that Burke Capital transferred ownership of its land in December to State transport group CIÉ, which is Irish Rail’s parent.
On the face of it, Burke Brothers appears to have received some €10.88 million for business interruption, property and buildings when its case was withdrawn.
Burke Brothers had no comment for The Irish Times for this article and Irish Rail provided no information on deal terms.
“After the issuing of those proceedings and prior to the hearing dates scheduled in the High Court, settlement agreements were reached by CIÉ with both parties. These agreements are subject to confidentiality clauses,” Irish Rail said.
There is nothing on the public record in respect of Gowan Group. The business did not reply when contacted by phone and email.
The transactions involving Burke Brothers are the latest to come to light since Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) reached an agreement last December to end judicial review proceedings against the MetroLink underground rail project in Dublin.
TII, a State body, is buying the homes of Dartmouth Square residents near the city centre after they withdrew a High Court case against MetroLink. The purchase of four homes on the square has since closed, with TII paying between €2 million and €2.6 million for each.
After long delays, the Dartmouth Square deal was done to avert the risk that litigation against MetroLink could go on for years.
As part of a separate agreement to advance almost 1,000 new homes at the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, the Land Development Agency spent €2.15 million in April buying a dormer bungalow in Goatstown from a housing objector.
The objector has withdrawn his High Court challenge, the second such case he had taken against the project at the former Central Mental Hospital.