THE HIGH Court has dismissed an application for an injunction preventing Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan paying out public money to cover the debts of private banks, including Anglo Irish Bank.
The injunction was sought yesterday on an ex parte (one side only) basis by John Squires and Ben Gilroy, members of a group called People for Economic Justice.
About 100 people took part in a protest organised by that group outside the Four Courts yesterday afternoon.
Mr Squires, Ballangon, Kells, Co Meath, and Mr Gilroy, Riverview, Athlumney Abbey, Navan, Co Meath, represented themselves during the brief hearing.
Mr Gilroy said the injunction was being sought in the context of proceedings being taken by them that aimed to prevent State payments to entities including unsecured bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank.
Mr Squires and Mr Gilroy sought an order prohibiting the Taoiseach and/or Minister using the State’s sovereign money, taxes, promissory notes, bonds or any other financial instrument to pay “this odious debt” to unsecured bondholders of Anglo, IBRC, the European Central Bank or any other financial institutions.
They claimed such payments “plunge the country further into unnecessary debt” and would “inflict further hardship on families”.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy dismissed the injunction application: grounds included the applicants’ failure to put the defendants on notice of their proceedings and failure to issue a notice of motion outlining their issue. The application was also not sufficiently urgent, the judge said.
Mr Gilroy and Mr Squires had argued that the matter was urgent because €3.1 billion is due to be paid as part of the State’s bill for Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide at the end of this month, but the judge said that the applicants could have moved earlier.
In affidavits, both men claimed the actions of the Taoiseach and the Minister in paying back unsecured debt to private banks who took part in “illegal activities” were unconstitutional.
The respondents lacked a mandate from the people to make such payments, they said.
The Taoiseach had placed promises made to the people of Ireland second to promises made to a banking system that had broken liquidity laws, they claimed.
Receiving bailouts from other member states of the EU or the ECB to pay back private banking corporations also conflicted with the Lisbon Treaty, they said.