The Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal by a prisoner in Mountjoy to travel to his home county of Limerick to cast his vote in tomorrow’s referendums.
In another judgment, the Supreme Court said it had no jurisdiction to decide on how the State should facilitate the right of another prisoner to cast his vote.
Stephen "Rossi" Walsh won a High Court case last June when a judge ruled he had a right to vote in elections. Mr Justice Quirke said the failure of the State to provide a means whereby Walsh could vote breached the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law.
Today Mountjoy prisoner Patrick O’Doherty began his appeal against yesterday’s High Court decision to refuse his application for an injunction to stop tomorrow’s three referendums.
O’Doherty (42), who is serving a two-year sentence for tax offences, refined his application telling the court he was seeking an application to allow him vote at his local polling station in Ballinagarry, Co Limerick.
O’Doherty said he never realised that he would not be able to exercise his right to vote when he was taken into custody last October. But Mr Brian O’Moore SC for the Attorney General said O’Doherty had never made any inquiry on the issue until May 24th last, and was told within a few hours at that time of his position.
In his ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy said O’Doherty’s attempts to remedy the situation and bring it to the attention of the relevant authorities in the form of a letter on May 24th, did "not seem to be prompt".
In his judgment today Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman said despite the prospect of a referendum being mooted for at least six months the court did not find O’Doherty’s reasons for his delay in bringing an action to be credible.
This afternoon Mr O’Moore told the court that to allow O’Doherty to cast his vote tomorrow would have a huge impact on the State. "If it is heard on the nine o’clock news that Mr O’Doherty was released to vote there would be an avalanche of applications.
He said 26 prisoners in Portlaoise had made inquiries about day releases to vote tomorrow.
Earlier Mr Justice Frank Murphy had asked O'Doherty if this order was made whether it would not encourage every other prisoner in the State to apply to do the same.
O'Doherty strongly contested this view saying it was not pertinent to his case.
In his final submission to the court O'Doherty said the Minister for the Environment could not have it both ways. If he wanted to hold a referendum, Mr O'Doherty contended, he should allow "and elastic custody to allow me to exercise my vote".
O’Doherty, who represented himself, said that his right to vote was the fundamental matter in his case and told the court there was no law the State could look to which denied him that right.
