Question 1

Where is the Dublin office - and does the Four Courts proximity actually matter?

Accepted Answer

The Ormond Building, 31–36 Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7 - on the Liffey quays, a short walk from the Four Courts, where the High Court’s planning cases are actually heard. For most planning work the proximity is convenience; for judicial review it’s practical reality: planning JR is a Four Courts practice, the lists move on their own rhythm, and conducting that work from up the quay rather than across the country is how this practice is built. For everything else - objections, appeals, enforcement responses - the office is optional: the whole exchange runs by email and phone where preferred, with same-week appointments when a desk serves better: 01 5827148, richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com.

Question 2

Dublin planning moves fast and dense - what does that mean for objectors?

Accepted Answer

It means the windows bite hardest here: the capital’s development intensity - infill schemes, apartment developments, height strategies working through the city plans - produces more site notices per street than anywhere in the country, and the five-week observation window runs from lodgement whether or not the notice was spotted early. The disciplines that matter in Dublin: check the register when the notice appears (the lodgement date is the clock); submissions drafted in plan-policy currency, because Dublin’s planners weigh submissions against detailed city and county development plans with specific height, density and amenity policies; and the appeal ticket preserved always - contested Dublin grants travel to An Coimisiún Pleanála constantly, and only submitters hold third-party rights when they do.

Question 3

What does the practice do for Dublin developers and landowners?

Accepted Answer

The other chair, fully served: pre-application legal risk review and JR-proofing - screening done demonstrably, participation handled generously, reasons built for the judge who may read them - because Dublin schemes attract organised, advised opposition and the challenge rate makes proofing arithmetic compelling; conditions and contributions work after grant; enforcement defence for sites and premises; and permission defence when objectors go to court - the notice-party work conducted a short walk from where it’s heard. The both-chairs candour applies: this practice drafts objections in other weeks, knows exactly where applications are vulnerable, and brings that knowledge to the proofing.

Question 4

How fast can a Dublin planning matter be assessed against a deadline?

Accepted Answer

Within 48 hours as standard from receiving the documents and dates - and same-day where a window genuinely demands it: the four-week appeal clock discovered late, the enforcement notice with a short compliance period, the eight-week JR window already part-run. Dublin’s advantage is logistical: documents move by email like everywhere, but where a matter needs papers moved, counsel briefed or an application made, the practice is minutes from the courts and the Law Library. Send the documents today; phone rather than email if the deadline is this week.

Question 5

Do you handle the ordinary Dublin homeowner questions too - extensions, attics, short-term lets?

Accepted Answer

Constantly - the volume work of Dublin planning is domestic: the extension measured against the cumulative history of a house extended twice before 1990; the attic conversion and its roof windows; the garden room whose use is drifting; and the short-term letting question, asked quietly, which in the capital carries the designated-area dimension and real enforcement activity. The method is the same at every scale: the exemption structure applied to your facts, the Section 5 declaration where certainty is worth buying, the enforcement response drafted properly when the letter has already arrived - and the honest answer when the answer is simply “apply for permission”.

Planning Solicitor — Dublin

The Practice Beside the Courts

Density Means Deadlines - and Both Chairs Busy

Two Free Tools Before You Call

The Documents and Your Dates, Today

Related Reading

Planning Law Dublin - FAQs