Barlow & Ors v The Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources & Ors (Approved) [2025] IESC 14 (11 April 2025)

In the early 2000s, the Plaintiffs invested some EUR14.5m in new mussel-dredging vessels with the encouragement and assistance of the Irish State, who wished to promote the sector and controlled access to stocks in its waters. The State then opened access to Northern Ireland dredgers, with the result that by 2005, mussel yield dropped, collapsing altogether in 2006. The Court ruled that, as the State had actively encouraged the investment, it had a duty to protect the Plaintiff investors against loss of their investments (although not of profits).

Read the full judgment here.