Dublin Corporation is going ahead with plans to introduce by-laws restricting parades in O'Connell Street despite doubts about their constitutionality.
A spokeswoman for the corporation told The Irish Times yesterday it was aware of the constitutional implications and had taken both internal and external legal advice. The corporation's law agent, Mr Terence O'Keeffe, had examined the proposed by-laws and obtained counsel's opinion on them. The draft by-laws would go on public display next week and there would then be five weeks for the public to make its submissions. The proposals, along with the submissions, would then go back to the central area committee to consider before bringing proposals, with any revisions, to the city council.
"There is no meeting in August, so they may not get to the city council before September," the spokeswoman said.
The draft by-laws propose that no group larger than six people can parade in O'Connell Street without the corporation's permission. Such permission must be obtained more than 31 days prior to the proposed parade. A deposit of £2,000 must be paid by the group parading if it numbers more than 50, and if the group is more than 300, it must produce evidence of indemnity insurance to the value of £3 million.
Dr Gerard Hogan SC, a lecturer in law in Trinity College and a member of the Constitutional Review Group, said: "If these by-laws come in their current form, they won't have a long life. They won't survive challenge in the courts."
He told The Irish Times the local authorities had power to introduce by-laws for land under their control, such as prohibiting football in parks or insisting dogs were leashed. Assuming they controlled the roads was a big proposition.
Even if that was accepted, "you can't abolish the constitutional right to assembly by a bylaw. It's as simple as that.
"The right to assembly can only be controlled by an Act of the Oireachtas, on the basis that it might lead to a breach of the peace, a danger to the public or a nuisance in a legal sense. I don't think even an Act of the Oireachtas imposing the kind of restrictions proposed here would be possible.
"The proposed notice, for instance, completely frustrates the right to have spontaneous demonstrations."
The proposals have also been criticised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and by Labour Senator Joe Costello. Senator Costello said the proposed by-laws would sound a death-knell to the public's right to protest and demonstrate in the State's capital city. O'Connell Street, he said in a statement, was associated with many significant demonstrations that were part of our political history. He mentioned the Jim Larkin protests, the tax marches and those in support of the Birmingham Six.
"The proposed by-laws, accompanied by swingeing fines and draconian powers of arrest, would represent a full-scale attack on the civil right of freedom of assembly and protest. It is nonsense to suggest that public demonstrations have had a negative economic effect on shops and businesses."