State to pay Pringle costs

The State must pay practically all of the legal costs incurred by TD Thomas Pringle in his unsuccessful challenge to the constitutionality of the ESM treaty providing for a bailout fund for distressed states in the eurozone, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The case raised “serious and substantial” issues of “exceptional public importance” concerning Irish and European law. The State should pay all of the costs except in relation to one issue, the chief justice said.