Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Although I covered this point earlier, it would be remiss of me not to re-iterate my belief that it is unconstitutional to prevent anyone from vindicating their rights in court. I am not the only one who believes that. I know of no other legislation in which people are deliberately prevented from vindicating their rights in court. I could cite how many cases have come before the High Court and were eventually dealt with in the Supreme Court. Apart from one case of which I am aware, Supreme Court appeals in such cases have always been at the instigation of the Government which refused to accept the determination of the High Court. There have been five such cases. The Minister appears terrified by the notion of people vindicating their rights in court, but how would he like it if someone told him he was legally prohibited from going to court? The provision is unconstitutional and, therefore, the Minister should re-examine it. Given the way the legislation has been framed, it will have the opposite effect to that which is intended. Once again, the judges will become legislators, which none of us wants. I did not spend my political life trying to get into the Dáil and enact legislation only to hand that function over to the courts. God knows, there are bodies outside this House that do virtually everything legislators should be doing. The Judiciary should not be acting as legislators and I do not think they want to do so anyway. I intend to press amendment No. 5.

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