A High Court judge has said the hearing of petitions challenging last year's general election results in the Cork South Central and Wicklow constituencies will proceed on November 18th unless there are some "insuperable" problems.
The petitions have been taken by well-known campaigner for the disabled Ms Kathy Sinnott, who was an unsuccessful candidate in Cork South Central, and Mr Nicky Kelly, a member of Wicklow County Council, who was a defeated candidate in the Wicklow constituency.
When dealing with pre-trial matters on October 7th, Mr Justice Kelly said the likely trial date would be November 18th. However, when he sat yesterday to deal with further pre-trial submissions, he was told that some documents in the case had not yet been made available by the petitioners' sides.
The judge said he had listed the case for yesterday to ensure there had been compliance with a discovery order. On the assumption that the discovery order would be complied with, he would list the case for mention next Tuesday to ensure it was ready for hearing. He proposed November 18th as the date to hear the petitions.
Ms Sinnott has challenged the election outcome and alleges that the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, did not include his full electoral expenses when making his statutory declaration. In the Wicklow constituency, Mr Kelly claims Fianna Fáil TD Mr Joe Jacob exceeded the spending limit by €10,000.