Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Lawless case was the first individual petition to Strasbourg, on which occasion the State's position was upheld. I take the point the Senator makes but, in a sense, he has missed the point that the rights in the Bill are rights in international law – the right of individual application to a body in Strasbourg and the right of that body to exercise compulsory jurisdiction. It is factually inconceivable that one could have an attempt to frustrate a right which is an international right. For example, there is clearly nothing any Irish citizen, national, company or person can do to frustrate the court from exercising its compulsory jurisdiction. The Irish courts would never have a function in regard to the compulsory jurisdiction of a court located in Strasbourg.

In regard to the right of individual petition, the Senator suggests the possibility of that being frustrated and the individual having no domestic remedy in Irish law in the event of a frustration or interference with that right. However, this is a right to go to Strasbourg, not any court in Ireland – it is not a right to go to the Four Courts. Rather, it is an international legal right, enjoyed by Irish citizens, to go through the European convention system. In a sense, there is no domestic court involvement in that matter at all.

The treaties themselves have been part of international law for many decades and the courts take full judicial notice of their provisions. They accept, without further proof, the existence of the treaties as international legal norms.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.