Ireland’s forthcoming referendum on same-sex marriage should be postponed as it may be unconstitutional to hold it before a pending Supreme Court ruling, legal experts have said.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Dr Maria Cahill, a lecturer in constitutional law at University College Cork said that until a ruling is made on case currently before the Supreme Court, and centred on the Referendum Act itself, the same-sex vote may be ultimately be ruled unconstitutional.

That case, taken by Joanna Jordan, challenges the outcome of the children’s rights referendum of November 2012 on the basis that the Irish Government used public money during that referendum campaign and allegedly infringed on the democratic process in doing so, thereby affecting the vote’s outcome.

In now pursuing the same-sex referendum along similar lines, Ms Cahill said, the Government “seems to display a less than whole-hearted recognition of the role of the people in the constitutional process; a role which the Supreme Court has repeatedly described as ‘sacrosanct’”.

Reacting to Ms Cahill’s assertion, her UCC colleague, Dr Seán Ó Conaill pointed out that Taoiseach Enda Kenny was in government at the time of the 1995 McKenna judgment which ruled that governments could not use public money to push agendas in referendum campaigns.

“They should have learned,” he said, adding that success for the challenge before the Supreme Court would create “a bizarre situation” in which “the Referendum Act would fall, so nobody could challenge the outcome of the marriage referendum”. The consequences for challenging future referenda he said, were “very worrying”.

Dr Ó Conaill stressed that the biggest issue highlighted by the Supreme Court case is that “the sovereign will of the Irish people is being interfered with by the Government” and added: “The Government has an appalling record when it comes to respecting the views of people.”