THE GREEN PARTY has said the government should honour the spirit of this morning’s High Court ruling and agree to move the writ for the Donegal South-West by-election.

In a statement released this lunchtime the party said that in light of this morning’s High Court ruling – in which it ruled that there had been an “unreasonable” delay in the holding of an election to replace Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher who was elected to the European Parliament in June 2009 – the government should honour the decision of the court and allow the writ be moved.

The party’s chairman Dan Boyle told reporters the remaining three elections, however, should be held in the first quarter of next year, as the government had originally intended.

The timing of when the writ could be moved was a matter for the cabinet, he said, but the cabinet would decide when to make such a decision as soon as possible, and that it could decide the Donegal South-West writ could be decided as early as tomorrow.

The Green Party had a responsibility to make its views known, Boyle said, and said the party wanted the by-election to be held before Christmas. This view would be relayed to the cabinet when it met to discuss the matter.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s News at One, Boyle said the party wanted to abide by the court’s opinion, but refused to confirm whether the government would be planning on submitting a Supreme Court appeal or not – though he said the Green Party did not want the decision to be appealed on its own right.

The court decision is in relation to Donegal South-West, it’s the one with the longest delay in being held and there are implications in the court judgement that the cabinet will have to examine – may may want to examine by way of a Supreme Court appeal that might have implications for all by-elections in the future – it could be important that that’s tested in the courts.

It’s for the cabinet to decide [whether to appeal the decision on principle], but we certainly don’t want to see a Supreme Court appeal happening and a further appeal in relation to Donegal South-West. And that’s why we’re making this annoucnement.

If the writ was to be moved tomorrow, the election would be held at the latest by December 1, four weeks from tomorrow – meaning that if the Government were to lose the ballot, with Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty now seen as a favourite to take the seat after winning the High Court action, its majority would be down to 81-79.

Such a small majority would mean that the Budget, which is to be announced on December 7, would be defeated if the two independent TDs, Michael Lowry – who yesterday said he hadn’t decided on whether to support it – and Jackie Healy-Rae were to vote against it.

Should the Government bite the bullet and hold all four by-elections together – or just call a general election? Let us know your thoughts.

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