MKO has provided Strategic Planning Advice to Galway Harbour Company over a 15-year period, including its current Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) application for a new deep-water port extension in Galway Bay.
This long-running project intended to provide a new port for Galway City has the added complexity of being the first project in the history of the Irish State to attempting to use the IROPI provisions of the EU Habitats Directive by contending it should be permitted for Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest (IROPI).
MKO led the planning team for the IROPI SID application to An Bord Pleanála, and project managed all interactions with An Bord Pleanála in the course of the pre-application SID determination process. This included attendance and participation in the Oral Hearing held in March 2015.
