A Dublin woman’s court action aimed at overturning the Yes vote in the children’s referendum is expected to be heard within weeks.
When the case by Joanna Jordan was mentioned yesterday, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill said he was available to hear it as soon as it was ready to proceed. He was told by Paul Sreenan SC, for Ms Jordan, the State’s defence was expected to be delivered later yesterday. There were potential preliminary issues regarding the procedures to be adopted in the case and the sides were asking the court to deal with those next week, Mr Sreenan added.
Ms Jordan will rely on last month’s Supreme Court judgment upholding claims by a Dublin man, Mark McCrystal, that the Government wrongly spent €1.1 million of public money on a “one-sided” referendum information campaign in “clear disregard” of the limits imposed by the Constitution on what the State may do in a referendum.
The Supreme Court unanimously found that the Government’s campaign was neither fair, equal, impartial nor neutral.