A High Court judge has ordered Trinity College Dublin to make its electronic electoral register available for campaign purposes to a candidate who is seeking one of three seats in next year's Seanad election.
Seán O'Connor, a grandson of former taoiseach Seán Lemass, who has already started his campaign for the Seanad, was told he could not use the register to campaign until the election was called next year.
He sought a judicial review in the High Court and has been granted access to the register for campaign purposes by Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan.
Mr O'Connor said yesterday he was delighted with the outcome, which had removed the disadvantage from which he had suffered in relation to sitting Senators Shane Ross and David Norris. The third current Senator, Dr Mary Henry, is not contesting the next election.
Mr O'Connor is a founder of Graduate Equality, which seeks voting rights for all Irish graduates and has made both oral and written submissions to the Government on Seanad reform. Only graduates of Trinity and the National University of Ireland are entitled to vote in Seanad elections despite the passing of a constitutional amendment in 1978 to give votes to all third-level graduates.
He is also campaigning on the basis that research he has conducted into Seanad elections has shown a massive waste of tax payers' money in the NUI and TCD constituencies during elections.
Mr O'Connor said that in August of this year he had made a formal request to Jean O'Hara, the administrative officer of the Seanad Electoral Office of Trinity College, for access to an electronic copy of the electoral register.
"I made the request on the basis that the university was obliged to furnish me with a copy as long as I paid the relevant fee but I was told I would have to give an undertaking not to use it until the election was called.
"I objected to this on the basis that the limitation on my access to the electoral register would put me in a much weaker position vis-à-vis the incumbent Senators as they have unlimited access to the register," Mr O'Connor said.
He said that with an election not likely to be called until the summer these candidates had up to a year's head-start.