The case continues. Gotta love the HSE’s complete disregard for the little blue book aka the Constitution! In court today they said that they would ‘allow’ the girl travel to England. They would apply to the District Court to allow her to travel if some conditions are met. Hmmm. How big of them. They would allow a person to leave the country - as if they have the right to stop her! Of course this is after they wrote to the passport office telling them that they had not consented to her getting a passport. The fact that they couldn’t consent to it - because they have no say in it - was irrelevant.
Let’s look at those conditions:
Condition 1. The District Court judge must be satisfied that the girl had considered the decision carefully. Excuse the language but what kind of patronising bastards work in the HSE? I’ve read the interviews with her - she knows exactly what she’s doing - after researching the prenatal condition carefully. Her boyfriend - the father - is taking the case on her behalf and her mother has given full support. But the pen-pushing muppets in the HSE aren’t satisifed that she is making an informed/deliberate choice?
Condition 2. The judge is satisfied that the travel is lawful. Article 40.3.3 anyone? The fact that we are not a communist state possibly? The accepted fact that anyone in this country has the freedom to travel where they please and no self-righteous civil servant can do a damn thing about that!
Their SC said that they are not objecting to her travel but only if she travels without court approval. I must make sure to apply to the court when I head off on holidays in July - just in case I’m breaking some law that I’m not currently aware of. You never know - I might just have to prove that I’m not living in 1970s Russia before I’m allowed leave the country.
So let’s look at two other things:
1. They told the Gardaí that she was legally forbidden from leaving the country on foot of a court order. This was a lie. In fact, this is contempt of court.
2. They told the Passport office that they had the authority to deny consent to a passport. This was a lie. This is also false representation.
So who wrote those letters? And exactly when are they going to be fired for this?