Dr. Simon Mills:

There are three possible answers to that. The first is a completely differently composed Supreme Court and that in half generation's time or a generation's time, it simply takes a different view. It could be exactly the same case and it takes a different view. The second is a case with different facts in which, for whatever reason, the court feels the particular circumstance of the particular person does, in fact, identify. I cannot imagine what that would be. The third, which the authors of Kelly: The Irish Constitutiondiscuss, is the idea that there may be a case with a large number of interveners, that is to say, people who are not actually bringing the case but are able to bring a wide range of evidential and additional information to bear to the court, such that the court is satisfied there is a ruling it could make. Other possibilities might be that, by the time such a case comes to court, there is a slightly different legislative background - perhaps section 2 is no longer in place, has been tweaked or changed in some way or there have been decisions of the courts about the prosecution of section 2 of the Criminal Law (Suicide) Act 1993. Each of those is unlikely, but none of them is impossible. All I am doing is identifying the fact that, in the absence of doing something, there are other actors and certain decisions could be taken out of the hands of the Oireachtas. I think it is unlikely but not impossible.