The High Court has permanently blocked a bid by a businessman to use a park in Dartmouth Square in south Dublin as a public car park.
The court today granted Dublin City Council an order permanently restraining Noel O'Gara and a company, Marble and Granite Tiles Ltd, the registered owner of the park in Ranelagh, from parking more than two vehicles in it.
Both vehicles must be the property of either Mr O'Gara, of Ballinahowen Court, Athlone, Co Westmeath, a director of the company, or of the company itself, Mr Justice Michael Hanna directed.
Mr O'Gara had argued that the planning regulations were unconstitutional, and that he had "a right to invite his friends onto his land with their cars for social occasions."
Granting the order, Mr Justice Hanna said he was satisfied that the use of the park as a car park was a material change of use requiring planning permission and for which no planning application had been made. It was not a question of who owned the land, but rather one about the particular use of the land at Dartmouth Square.
He told Mr O'Gara that providing a parking service for people, paid or unpaid, was different from inviting friends around to park their vehicles on his property.
Mr O'Gara was "no less subject to the law than the rest of us", the judge said.
In response to Mr O'Gara, the judge said the planning laws were presumed Constitutional unless they were successfully challenged and set aside by the Supreme Court.
Mr O'Gara, he noted, had had the option of testing the constitutionality of the 1963 Planning Act in the courts but had declined to take such an action. The judge also ordered that Mr O'Gara pay costs of €1,000.
Earlier, Mr O'Gara, who was representing himself, said he had come to court to "defend his right to enter his land, with or without acquaintances," without hindrances from anyone. He said it was outrageous that he could not bring cars onto what is his property.
Mr O'Gara said he did not want to "go down the road" of a legal challenge to the planning acts, as it could cost him thousands in legal expenses.
The judge, Mr O'Gara argued, had failed to "do his duty" or to follow the Constitution. Mr Justice Hanna strongly rejected such claims.
An attempt by Mr O'Gara to read a statement in relation to a previous court hearing in the matter, heard by another judge, was refused by Mr Justice Hanna on the grounds that it was a "vexatious rant."
Dartmouth Square park was zoned to provide recreational open space, council planning official Rory O'Byrne said in an affidavit.