Since the launch of our newest practice area of Environmental Law in 2024, Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors & Advocates have been instructed to act for a broad range of individuals and community organisations, advising and providing representation in relation to access to environmental justice, planning law, judicial review proceedings, and criminal defence of environmental defenders in the exercise of their right to protest.
Typifying the nature of the public interest work undertaken in this area is our representation of environmental objectors to the increasingly prevalent headlong gold rush by multinational mining corporations to this jurisdiction with the discovery of large mineral deposits in counties west of the river Bann, an antiquated and lax regulatory framework and a devolved executive and wider UK government captured by the concept of economic growth for its own sake absent any real benefit for the public.
In west Tyrone, the Dalradian Gold public local inquiry is due to again proceed in April 2026 following its adjournment in January 2025 after the discovery of a failure by the Department for Infrastructure to consult with individuals and government bodies in the Republic of Ireland on the possible cross-border environmental impact of one of the largest gold mines on the island of Ireland. The firm attended the public local inquiries and have made available our notes of the proceedings along with the Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) Project and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ). A copy of our notes of the inquiry to date can be accessed via our office.
In May 2025, the Department for the Economy, operating under mineral prospecting legislation last updated by the old Parliament of Northern Ireland, granted 7 mineral prospecting licences to four multinational corporations covering thousand of square kilometres covering counties Derry, Fermanagh, Armagh, and Tyrone. Derry City & Strabane District Council had challenged the consultation process for the granting of mineral prospecting licences granted in 2022, the Judgment of the High Cout in that case can be obtained from our office, and astoundingly the Department repeated the same errors in law in granting further licences in 2025. Solicitor Cathal Mullan of HCC, acting on behalf of our client Martin Tracey, issued pre-action correspondence and lodged proceedings in the High Court alongside Derry City & Strabane District Council and members of the Save Our Sperrins community organisation represented by PILS. The Department for the Economy conceded the decision was unlawful and the licences were all finally revoked. Minister for the Economy, Dr Caoimhe Archibold has since advised that the Department is now undertaking a review of the existing legislative regime and we eagerly anticipate the outworking of this review.
If you have an interest in environmental justice or wish to speak to us in relation to your concerns regarding the legality of an environmental matter in the jurisdiction, you can contact HCC at 028 9027 8227 or info@hartecoylecollins.com.
Our environmental law team includes partners Patricia Coyle and Nichola Harte, and solicitors Meadbh O’Dowd and Cathal Mullan.
20th November 2025
