The Supreme Court ruled on 8 November 2012 that referendum campaign material published by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs contained extensive passages that did not conform to the McKenna principles on the use of public money in referendums.
The ruling was delivered urgently, two days before the referendum on the Thirty First Amendment of the Constitution (Children) Bill, 2012. The Court said the referendum’s substance was a matter for the people. It gave its ruling that day, with judgments to follow on 11 December.
Mark McCrystal appealed a High Court judgment and order made on 1 November 2012. He had sought declarations, an injunction and consequential orders concerning a booklet and website, both titled “Children’s Referendum”, and advertisements published and distributed by the department using public funds. He submitted that the material breached the principles established in McKenna v. An Taoiseach (No. 2), which prohibit the Government from using public money to promote a particular referendum result.
The Court said an admitted misstatement about the effect of the referendum was among the material that failed to comply. It also stressed that not all of the booklet or website breached the principles. Given the overall structure of both, however, the Court said it would not be appropriate to redact either.
The Court said it would grant a declaration that the respondents had acted wrongfully by spending or arranging to spend public money on the website, booklet and advertisements in a manner that was not fair, equal or impartial. It declined to grant an injunction, saying it assumed the respondents would stop publishing and distributing the material. The ruling did not order an injunction.