THE GOVERNMENT is to seek an early date for the hearing of its appeal against a High Court declaration that there was an inordinate delay moving the writ for the Donegal South West byelection.
As a result of the appeal, another challenge over delays in holding the Dublin South and Waterford byelections has been deferred to January 17th. The Supreme Court yesterday said it would deal next week with a State application for a priority hearing of the Donegal appeal after all relevant papers were lodged.
Earlier, Maurice Collins SC, for the Government, told president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns that the Government had decided to appeal his decision on inordinate delay in moving the Donegal South West writ and would be seeking a priority date for a hearing.
Mr Justice Kearns rejected an application by two Fine Gael members for an early hearing of their proceedings relating to the Waterford and Dublin South constituencies. Frank Callanan SC, for the Fine Gael members, said there was an inherent urgency in having this case heard.
Mr Justice Kearns, noting that it was July when the Doherty case first started and October before it was heard, adjourned the Fine Gael matter to January 17th, saying it would suffer no prejudice.
The State must be permitted a full and unfettered right of appeal to the Supreme Court, he said.
The Doherty case was the first in which the High Court had carried out a detailed interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 1992 by reference to the constitutional construction of statutes and by reference to the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, the judge said.
It would therefore be “singularly inappropriate” for the High Court to embark on further cases involving the same principles until the Supreme Court had given its decision on the Doherty case, the judge said.