3A High Court judge struck out as an abuse of court process yesterday an application by a college lecturer for an order preventing the Government from proceeding to amend Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution as approved in the May 1998 referendum.
He also granted an application by Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the defendants, for a direction that Mr Denis Riordan must first get leave of the court before initiating actions against such parties.
Mr O'Donnell said this was the fourth set of proceedings in which Mr Riordan had challenged constitutional provisions.
In an extempore judgment, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said it was in the highest degree undesirable that matters involving negotiations of the utmost delicacy and importance should be subject to such applications. That was why he was delivering his judgment within two hours of the hearing.
Mr Riordan, of Clonconane, Redgate, Limerick, had taken proceedings against the Taoiseach and Tanaiste, the Government, the Oireachtas, Dail and Seanad, the Attorney General and Ireland. He sought to prevent the Government issuing a declaration that the State has become obliged, under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, to give effect to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, and also sought orders restraining the defendants from changing or interfering with Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
Mr Riordan argued that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution Act 1998 - the amendment intended to give effect to measures in the Belfast Agreement including changes to Articles 2 and 3 - was unconstitutional.
The State opposed the application.
The judge granted the orders sought by the State to strike out Mr Riordan's claim on the grounds it was an abuse of process, formally dismissed Mr Riordan's own application, and awarded costs against Mr Riordan.