Private Members’ Motion
Subject: Court fees and access to constitutional justice Dear Teachta Dála, I am writing to you as a constituent to raise a concern about access to justice and court fees in the High Court. At present, citizens are generally required to pay court stamp fees to bring proceedings in the High Court, even where the purpose of those proceedings is to protect or vindicate fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. In practice, only a very narrow category of constitutional cases—primarily applications under Article 40.4—are clearly exempt from fees. This means that people seeking to vindicate other core constitutional rights, such as equality before the law, personal rights, family and children’s rights, property rights, or freedom of conscience and expression, may be required to pay significant fees simply to access the courts. Rights that depend on the ability to pay are not being vindicated equally. By contrast, the current fee rules provide a broad automatic exemption where a part...