Article 40.6.1(i) finally gets some teeth!?
Various news services (BreakingNews.ie | Ireland.com | RTÉ) report that Mr Justice de Valera today struck down section 3 of the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act 1847 (as amended by the Public Assistance Act, 1939), much to the chagrin of the perpetually angry JC Skinner. That section made begging in a public place an offence, and de Valera J struck it down as a disproportionate infringement upon the right to freedom of expression in Article 40.6.1(i) of the Constitution and the unenumerated right to communicate located in Article 40.3.1
Perhaps this will be the spur to dust down the Law Reform Commission’s 1985 Report on Vagracy, as part of a thorough-going reform of an area of the law largely untouched since Victorian times? More importantly, as far as I know (and the High Court in The State (Lynch) v Cooney [1992] IR 337 notwithstanding) this is the first time that a section of an Irish Act has been struck down on freedom of expression grounds. If so, that makes today a red letter day in Irish constitutional history: the day upon which Article 40.6.1(i) finally gets some teeth. …