A High Court judge has ordered that a Limerick lecturer, a frequent litigant, may in future only initiate court proceedings on strict conditions and with the permission of the High Court.
Mr Justice Thomas Smyth said his order was intended to avoid further "vexatious" and needless litigation by Denis Riordan, a lecturer, Redgate, Limerick. He noted there was a record of 19 constitutional cases brought by Mr Riordan, all of which failed.
The judge made the order against Mr Riordan when dismissing on all grounds his challenge to the constitution of the Court of Criminal Appeal, the system under which a High Court judge may also sit on the Supreme Court and various other provisions of the Courts Acts governing the operation of the courts system, including a claim that any decision of a divisional Supreme Court of three or five judges may be appealed to the full Supreme Court.
Mr Justice Smyth said Mr Riordan, in his action against the Government, Oireachtas and Attorney General, was effectively raising "academic issues of law" and it was not the function of the courts to make decisions on such issues where there was no dispute to resolve.
The right of courts access was to be protected but was not an absolute automatic right in every case and circumstance, he said.
In respecting the right of all those who seek access to the courts, the court itself must also have some self-respect, he said. Otherwise there was the real possibility, "nay probability", that the justice system would be abused and/or manipulated for unworthy purposes.
The judge also ordered that Mr Riordan be restrained from taking any proceedings whatever against various State and Government defendants except with prior leave of either the High Court or, where appropriate, the Supreme Court.
Mr Justice Smyth said it was an affront to the principle that justice must be done and be seen to be done if the public purse was to be regarded "as a full indemnity fund" to permit Mr Riordan to continue what, in these proceedings, was vexatious litigation.