Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I suggest to the Senators that they perhaps take their own distinct legal advice although I accept that Senator Regan has a legal training. There is clear case law to support the issue. The Senators are asking for the Oireachtas by legislation to possibly overturn previous decisions made before the passing of this Act. I can put it no better than Mr. Justice Lynch in his 1994 judgment in Howard and Others v. Commissioners for Public Works and Others when he stated:

The Oireachtas cannot alter or reverse that finding or the declaration and injunction made on foot of same. To attempt to do so would countervene the constitutional separation of powers in that the Oireachtas would be trespassing on and into the judicial domain.

I refer to significant other case law, Buckley v. Attorney General in 1950, and the judgment of Mr Justice Keane that: "While there would clearly be no constitutional objection to the Oireachtas altering the general law, setting aside a specific adjudication by a competent court was another matter entirely." All the advice I have received is to the effect that because of the clear fundamental confirmation in the Constitution of the separation of powers, to make any criminal law retrospective would be contravening that principle of separation of powers within the Constitution.