The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled in favour of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland and community group No Gas Caverns on both grounds of appeal, namely the former environment minister’s failure to refer the decision to the Executive and the taking into account of a proposed community fund.

Handing down the judgment on behalf of a three-judge panel, the Lady Chief Justice, Dame Siobhan Keegan, held that Edwin Poots acted irrationally when he made the unilateral decision to approve the marine licence.

“Lest any uncertainty arises or lest there is any suggestion that by virtue of this ruling we are effectively creating a bright line rule in judicial review that ministers must depose to their decisions, we are not,” she said.

“The point clearly arises and is acute in this case for the reasons we have given. Specifically, it seems logical to us that given the climate commitments now enshrined in our law that decision makers on large scale projects such as this will have to consider and rationalise any convergence or divergence with those standards set in law.”

Friends of the Earth NI director James Orr said: “This is a great day for local communities, our coastline and our climate. But, without a fully resourced independent Environmental Protection Agency, we must remain on high alert because this case demonstrates how government can break the law.”

Lisa Dobbie of No Gas Caverns added: “It’s not every Monday that you change the way environmental decision-making works in Northern Ireland! Challenging this nature-wrecking project took over our lives for the past five years. It’s been so all-consuming; I almost don’t know what to do tomorrow now!”