The High Court has refused Michelle Keane leave to present an election petition challenging the 2024 general election result in Kerry, ruling that her application was made after the statutory 14-day deadline had expired.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons delivered the judgment on 11 March 2025. The constituency result had been declared on the weekend of 30 November 2024. Keane filed papers at the Central Office of the High Court on 6 March 2025, and her application was heard the following day.
Keane, an unsuccessful candidate in Kerry, appeared without a lawyer. Her draft petition alleged that a presiding officer had torn or detached ballot papers from a book before individual electors were identified. It also alleged discrepancies, errors and omissions in votes recorded for her at some polling stations. These were allegations in the draft petition, not findings by the court.
The judge said the principal complaint was, on Keane’s own account, known to her on polling night, 29 November 2024. She said she had witnessed the alleged conduct and immediately complained to An Garda Síochána and the returning officer. The judge found that the application was time-barred and said the High Court had no statutory power to extend the deadline. He also noted that the statutory exceptions for certain bribery allegations and election-expense matters did not apply.
The court also refused Keane’s requests for election documents, including counted, rejected, unused and spoilt ballot papers and ballot-paper counterfoils. The judge said disclosure could not be pursued within an application for leave, which is only a means of seeking permission to present a petition. He added that sealed documents could not be ordered for a petition that Keane was time-barred from bringing.
Keane separately alleged that she had been denied access to marked copies of the register of Dáil electors. The judgment said that issue could not be resolved in these proceedings and might, in principle, be addressed through separate judicial review proceedings.
Leave to present the petition and the related disclosure request were refused. The court made no order as to costs.