I Would Do Anything for Rights, But I Won't Do That

For all its influence and renown, TD v Minister for Education is arguably an outlier among the many decisionsof the Irish courts on the topic of rights enforcement against the executive. This paper illustrates this by reference to case law before TD, and discusses recent reaffirmation of this by the Supreme Court. It then considers various possible explanations for this outlier status, and suggests that the best explanation might be deep discomfort on the part of the judiciary with enforcement of economic and social rights. It concludes by noting that this discomfort could transcend constitutional text, so that even if further rights of this sort were inserted into the Constitution, the courts might refuse to strongly enforce them