A COUNTY Limerick pensioner has made an application to the High Court seeking to overturn the result of the Children’s Referendum.
Nancy Kennelly, who is a resident at the Abbot Close Nursing Home in Askeaton, is one of two petitioners who have put the State on notice of their application and the matter is listed for hearing by Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill next Tuesday. Joanna Jordan of St Kevin’s Villas, Glenageary Road Upper, Dun Laoghaire is the second applicant on the High Court petition.
Just 33.49 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote on Saturday November 10 last with the referendum passed on a 58 per cent to 41 per cent majority. It is claimed by the petitioners that the Government used public money to sway the campaign and therefore it had a material effect on the outcome.
Ms Kennelly claims that in voting yes through the postal voting facility, her vote was swayed in light of the subsequent Supreme Court ruling that the Government referendum campaign material was not impartial and weighed towards the yes vote campaign.
In an affidavit to the court, she said that her vote relied upon the information provided by the Government in influencing her to vote yes. Ms Kennelly later learned of the Supreme Court ruling but it was too late to change her vote and her affidavit claimed that she “trusted the Government to provide her with fair and impartial information.”
Ms Kennelly voted two weeks before the public vote on November 10 and was “shocked and angered” at the outcome of the poll in light of the Supreme Court ruling prior to referendum day.
Journalist and commentator John Waters is also supporting the petitioners and has submitted an affidavit to that effect.
This week, the High Court ordered that the women were to receive a copy of the Supreme Court ruling and they are seeking leave to appeal that the onus should be on the State to prove that the breach had no material effect.
