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(My thanks to Randy Glasbergen)

  We are always taught to define key concepts at the beginning of any investigation, so let’s try and do that. What is meant by the term ‘disability’?

Disability was defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2008 as:

“Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem…

People with intellectual disabilities who want to marry.

In the matter of A

A man with an intellectual disability who wants to marry his long term partner has won his appeal to halt an inquiry into whether he should be made a Ward of Court.

In June 2019, the man’s care provider successfully applied for an injunction from the High Court to prevent the man from marrying his partner. The High Court then considered whether the man should be made…

When you need a helping hand

For parents whose child has been (recently) diagnosed with autism, my wife Fiona has graciously made her book available on line for free.

Please spread the word.

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/601632/

Learning at Level 5

This blog has been quiet for a while as I am currently engaged with lecturing online, which is a time-consuming and often stressful exercise, as there are so many elements completely beyond your control. I know that from a student perspective this is a really tough gig, and students (and their families) need all the help that we can give them.

With that in mind, I am developing a Discord…

The concept of Standing and the access to justice

The Roman forum was a busy, often chaotic, place. Merchants, moneylenders, prophets, politicians, herbalists, apothecaries, and so on, were all jostling around doing business. It was similar to our modern-day marketplace, but probably a lot rowdier.

What set the Roman forum apart from our experience of an open-air market was that the courts were also held in the forum. The Romans were in many…

Public Consultation – fruitful or farcical?

  What makes a good public consultation?

  I often write about a flawed or absent public consultation process. People keep saying to me: “We know how you are not supposed to do it, but can you not be constructive and suggest how a good consultation is set up?”.

  Public consultation is a process that involves the public in providing their views and feedback, usually on a proposed Bill before it…

Those readers who were I interested in my previous blog on the forestry industry in Ireland will be interested to read an interview that Peter Sweetman gave to the Irish Independent:

Peter Sweetman is not opposed to forestry, he says, he’s opposed to the Government “getting around EU legislation”.

Known for his numerous submissions, the Mayo-based environmental activist currently has 21…

Seeing the Wood and the trees.

 My most favourite place is in a forest. They are full of energy, they smell lovely, they shield you from outside noise, there is birdsong and the occasional chatter of squirrels, you might see deer or other forest creature, and there is often the burbling brook just to top it off. Forests make you feel alive and recharge your batteries for future use.

  My research has taught me that by the…

“obscurum per obscurius”

(“the obscure by the more obscure”)

  If “bullshit” was a proper legal concept, it would have been used liberally in the latest Supreme Court judgment, and one can only imagine that the actual word was used in discussions between the learned judges before Chief Justice Clarke delivered the unanimous judgment.

  The judgment was Friends of the Irish Environment v. Government of Ireland [2020] IESC

Forcing the ‘Custodians of the Planning Process’ to do their job.

Many readers will be surprised to know that Irish planning law does have enforcement procedures. They will be even more surprised to know that the bodies designated to perform this enforcement function are the Councils. This is due to the fact that in Ireland these two entities rarely appear at the same time. Despite our Councils being the designated custodians of the planning process, they…

Illegal quarries seem to be in the news a lot lately, and it is always useful to pursue these stories, as their level of proliferation is usually directly proportional to the level of corruption in our county council system.  The reason for that is that it should be impossible to conduct illegal quarrying if a council is enforcing the planning laws. It always seems to be the case that where an…

Adios to Substituted Consent. At last.

Peter Sweetman

    What is substituted consent?

  Substituted consent is a form of retention permission, whereby a person can obtain planning permission for a building or development  after that building has already been erected. It has a long and colourful history in Irish law, having first been officially introduced by Section 27 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act of 1963.

Distraction from the car engine

A very insightful piece from an amazing young woman.

via Distraction from the car engine

What do we mean by “Conflict of Interest”?

EU commissioner lobbied by energy firm he owns shares in

Johannes Hahn is the European Commissioner for budget and administration. He also owns 2,200 shares in Austria’s largest electricity-provider (Photo: europarl.europa.eu)

By NIKOLAJ NIELSEN

  BRUSSELS, 14. FEB, 07:04

  EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahnowns 2,200 shares in Austria’s largest electricity-provider Verbund AG whilst…