An Irish university student has been given the go-ahead by the High Court to legally challenge the Government¿s opening of Irish airports and airspace to US war planes involved in military action in Afghanistan.
High Court President, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, told Eoin Dubsky, of Whitewalls, Ballymoney, Co Wexford, that he could apply for an interlocutory injunction restraining the Irish State from permitting US military aircraft the use of Irish airspace or to land at Shannon airport.
Mr Richard Humphries, counsel for Dubsky, a 22-year-old student at Dublin City University, told the court he would also be applying for a declaration that Irish Ministerial orders and permissions for overflights and landings of aircraft "involved in or relevant to military action in Afghanistan" were unconstitutional.
Mr Dubsky grounded his application for a judicial review of the Government's decisions on the basis that by assisting the military action in Afghanistan the Irish State was declaring or participating in a war without the assent of Dail Eireann.
He is also claiming that decisions permitting the overflights and landings were void in that they went beyond the authority bestowed on the Irish Government by the constitution.
Mr Dubsky, an Irish citizen, told the court he was currently on bail on charges relating to damage to a United States military aircraft in Shannon, Co Clare.
He said he was a member of the University's Green Society which was dedicated to social justice and had campaigned for more than two years for the resolution of international disputes by peaceful means.
Mr Dubsky said he had obtained information on foreign overflights and landings between September 2001 and June 2002 from the Department of Foreign Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.
Following the court hearing Mr Dubsky said he hoped his judicial review proceedings would result in an end to all US military overflights and stopovers.
He said that as the world had mourned with America a year and one day ago the UN Security Council had passed the Resolution in response to the terrorist attacks. Those in power had since then distorted everyone's grief and the meaning of the Resolution to pursue a war with no end.