The High Court has said the State has a duty to provide arrangements allowing visually impaired people to vote privately, without assistance in elections and referendums, where that is reasonably practicable and economically effective.
Mr Justice Tony O'Connor said Robbie Sinnott, a visually impaired man who took a case against the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the State, was entitled to declarations concerning the State's duty to vindicate his voting rights.
Mr Justice O'Connor said he shared Mr Sinnott's concerns about the delay by the State in introducing such arrangements.
The judge said he could not require the minister to adopt any particular arrangement - such as a tactile voting device - but he could make a declaration to guide the minister about the relevant provisions of the 1992 Electoral Act.
Court rules State has duty to assist visually impaired people vote https://t.co/fNEDRBPjgv pic.twitter.com/xrTRAWHv2F
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 30, 2017
He said he was also prepared to make a declaration that the minister had a duty to outline in public details of planned studies and regulations for the provision of arrangements to facilitate visually impaired voters to mark their ballot papers without assistance as envisaged by the Act.
The formal wording of the declarations will be finalised after lawyers have considered the judgment.
Mr Sinnott, who is in his 40s, is a father of two from James Street in Dublin.
He is a member of the Blind Legal Alliance and was born with a severe visual impairment.
He expects to be unable to see at all within four years.
He claimed he must ask the polling station presiding officer to complete his ballot paper, which effectively means he is being deprived of his right to a secret ballot.
He also claimed the State has been aware since at least 2011, of mechanisms which could ensure secret voting for visually impaired people in elections here.
His action was supported by the Free Legal Advice Centres.
