Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the esteemed lawyers. It is a great and necessary exchange between them and us as lawmakers. Do we have an obligation to implement the recommendations and judgments of the European Court of Human Rights as outlined in Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights? What was the judgment?

Professor Binchy made the point that the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights was that we have not legislated for Article 40.3.3°. However, my reading of the judgment - perhaps Mrs. Justice McGuinness will comment on this - is that we have not legislated for that article as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the X case. In other words, the issue is that we have not legislated for the X judgment, as distinct from Professor Binchy's argument that the judgment was seeking clarification rather than legislative implementation. I refer to paragraphs 254 and 264 of the judgment, which include a couple of references to the lack of legislative implementation.