A report by the Constitution Review Group threatens property rights and could push Irish society into a downward spiral, according to economics professor Kevin Dowd of Sheffield University.
In a strongly-worded attack published in the latest edition of Reflections, the journal of the Edmund Burke Institute, Prof Dowd says the report shows an underlying social philosophy which is incompatible with a free society.
He maintains that the review group concedes the principle that property rights should receive constitutional endorsement, but only if the State can do what it wants with private property. He also described as "disturbing" that a minority of the review group was against constitutional protection of property rights.
The review group's report forms the basis for work undertaken by the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. Prof Dowd, who is also adjunct scholar with the Washington-based Cato Institute, criticised the group's approach to equality in society as "outmoded and discredited".
In his view, attempting to achieve equality by taking into account preconceived differences between people is "dangerous".
"What is at stake here is not the mere question of whether one can add a few economic rights to an otherwise liberal constitution, or, whether we can replace the liberal notion of formal equality with a more substantive notion of equality and then carry on as if it were business as usual."
Adopting a new notion of equality undermines the formal rights on which the well-being of civil society depends, he maintains. At worst, it could lead to "another disastrous attempt to achieve socialism."
He concludes: "We cannot have the benefits of a civil society, well-functioning markets, a high level of prosperity, and so forth, whilst simultaneously destroying its foundations."