AG warns on legal move to end horse fair

ATTEMPTS TO close down the controversial Smithfield horse fair through a High Court injunction could prove to be unconstitutional, the Attorney General has said.

In a letter to the Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Gerry Breen, the office of the Attorney General said it had declined to take a court action because such an action could be contrary to the principle of the separation of powers.

The letter pointed out that laws extinguishing a “market right” such as the one at Smithfield had been enacted by the Oireachtas. The law states that in order to close down a market such as Smithfield, an alternative must be provided.

The Attorney General’s office said that no alternative was available, so to seek a closure of the Smithfield market would be in breach of the Oireachtas’s own laws and therefore a breach of the constitutional principle of the separation of powers, where the Oireachtas enacts and changes laws and the judiciary upholds those laws as they exist.

Instead, the office recommends that Dublin City Council examine its own laws under the Casual Trading Act 1995 to regulate and control the market.

Previous attempts to move the fair to places further north in the city have proved unsuccessful.

Public safety concerns over the market, which has been going on in various guises for hundreds of years, were heightened after a shooting incident in March when two men were injured and a third was attacked with a slash hook.

Dublin City Council, the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton have all expressed a desire that the fair be closed down.

The situation is complicated because the laws, known as “market rights”, governing such ancient gatherings stretch back to 1665.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries has suggested that closure of the fair could be brought about through primary legislation banning it outright, rather than by relying on existing legislation.

The fair is on again tomorrow, which is the first Sunday of the month, the traditional date for the event.

Dublin City Council has urged horse traders not to go on Sunday and also to avoid the fair over the coming months because of renovation work the council has begun on Smithfield Plaza as part of the Smithfield Quarter enhancement scheme.

As a result of this work, more than 50 per cent of the space normally occupied by the horse fair will not be available on Sunday and there will be disruption over the coming months, the council said in a statement.

The request is supported by An Garda Síochána.