Seanad report: The length of time it was taking Supreme Court judges to give their reasoning for the reimprisonment of "Mr A" on the statutory rape issue showed how complicated law could be, even for the top echelon of the judiciary, Brendan Ryan (Lab) said.
Mr Ryan made his comment during the debate on the Defence (Amendment) Bill. Warning that all law could throw up anomalies, he said that one had only to recall recent events and the fact that when the Supreme Court had ruled that Mr A would be returned to prison, the justices had said that they would give their reasons within a relatively short period of time.
"We are still waiting to realise how complicated law is, even for the eminent judges of the Supreme Court finding a consistent position on how a man could be re-locked up, having been convicted of an offence which turned out to be unconstitutional. Obviously, their lordships and ladyships are having to choose their words extremely carefully."
Acting chairman Terry Leyden (FF) said there should not be any criticism of the judiciary .
Mr Ryan said that Supreme Court judges had told him that public representatives were perfectly entitled to discuss judicial rulings, though they could not libel judges or attribute evil motives to them.