The Gazette 1973

The provisions of the law relating to the election of

members of Dail Eireann were contained in the Elec-

toral Act, 1923, and in the amending Act of 1963 and

they were contained in particular in Section 5 of that

Act, which read : "A person shall be entitled to be

registered as a Dail elector in a constituency if he has

reached the age of 21 years and he is on the qualifying

date (a) a citizen of Ireland and (b) ordinarily resident

in the constituency."

Mr. Justice Kenny said that he paused there to say

that it was agreed by counsel for all the defendants that

the reference to 21 years in that section was repugnant

to the Constitution and that the section had become

unconstitutional as a result of the passing of the Fourth

Amendment to the Constitution.

Register provision

The next provision in the Act which was relevant was

the provision for a register—there was to be a register of

voters made up as of a date which might be prescribed.

And Section 26 provided that, subject to the subsequent

provisions of the section, every person whose name was

on the register of Dail electors for the time being in

force in a constituency, and no other person, whould be

entitled to vote at the poll at a Dail election.

Mr. Justice Kenny then dealt with the regulations

concerning the making of the register of elections and

said that the final register had to be published on April

1, and that register came into operation on April 15.

When one looked at clause four of the regulations one

saw that the qualifying date for the register was Sep-

tember 15 in the year preceding the year in which the

have been registered or returned last year because at

that date the amendment had not been made. There-

fore Mr. Reynolds did not comply with the provisions

of the law relating to the election of members of Dail

Eireann.

Mr. Reynolds had, therefore, no constitutional right

to vote, even though part of Section 5 of the Act of

1963 and part of Section 26, the part that related to the

questions which may be asked of any elector ("Have

you reached the age of 21 years?"), were repugnant to

the Constitution.

The right to vote was a constitutional right, but it

was a right which, in his view, under the term sof the

Constitution, arose only if one complied with the law in

force for the time being relating to registration, and it

was not a right to vote when a person had attained a

certain age.

Compilation impossible

If Mr. Reynolds had a constitutional right to vote the

Court would have to find some way by which that right

could be exercised, but, for the reasons he had given,

he did not think Mr. Reynolds had a constitutional right

in the sense that having attained the age of 18 did not

of itself confer a constitutinal right to vote. If he did,

of course, everybody who attained that age on the day

before a General Election would have the right to vote,

and that would make the compilation of a register

impossible. The Court also had to have regard to the

fact that the Dail, having been dissolved under Article

16 (3) 2, a General Election for members of Dail Eireann

should take place not later than 30 day; after its disso-

lution.

"The plaintiff has, in my view, no constitutional right

to vote," said Mr. Justice Kenny.

He said that he himself had suggested that the draft

basis of the election (counsel on both sides spent much

of yesterday making submissions on this point).

Mr. Justice Kenny then referred to the difficulties in

relation to this suggestion and concluded that it would

be administratively impossible and said that, apart from

that, there was no legal authority to do so.

Reference had been made to the fact that the Minister

could deal with the matter by special regulation, and

Mr. Justice Kenny, having discussed the relevant sections

of the Act, said that he did not want to express any

view on whether the Minister could be empowered

under the Constitution to make an alteration in a

statute. "My personal view is that he cannot," said Mr.

Justice Kenny. He did not think that the fact that the

Constitution had been amended so that 18 had been

substituted for 21 created an emergency, nor did he

think that it created a special difficulty.

No way

Mr. Justice Kenny said that there was no way in

which the court could devise the machinery by which

those between the ages of 18 and 21 could vote. The

State had not, in his view, failed to protect and vindi-

cate the rights of the citizens, because the right to vote

was not conditional only on attaining a certain age.

—The Irish Times

(15-2-1973)

Alleged drunken driver cleared: rules for sealing blood

sample defined.

A driver on a drinks charge succeeded in his High

Court appeal yesterday when the judge decided that

the rules for sealing a defendant's blood sample must

be strictly complied with.

Mr. Justice Pringle was ruling on a case stated from

District Justice Lanigan O'Keeffe.

And though the driver involved, John Hollingsworth,

Rathnew, Co. Wicklow, was cleared, leave was granted

to the Attorney-General to appeal.

The District Justice, in his case stated, said Mr.

Hollingsworth elected to give a sample of blood to Dr.

V. Pippett, of Wicklow, who injected it into a tube

which he closed by screwing back on the screw cap.

Mr. Justice Pringle said the Garda agreed in evid-

ence at the District Court hearing that it would be

possible for any person having acess to the envelope to

take out the tube, unscrew the cap and interfere with

the contents, replace the cap and replace the tube in

another envelope and there would be no trace of the

interference.

"The question to be answered," the Judge said, "is,

was the blood specimen tube 'stopped' in accordance

with the regulations.

"Stopper" was defined as including a screw-top and

the stopper provided for the doctor was a screw-top,

but Mr. Rex Mackey, for Mr. Hollingsworth, submitted

that the words "or similar device to seal a specimen

tube" showed that the stopper must consist of some-

thing more than an ordinary screw-top and that it

should have a device attached to the screw-top which,

Mr. Mackey submitted, would not seal the tube and

that it should have a lead seal which had been attached

to it when the doctor received it.