Most Read: Enoch Burke and the problem of ‘potentially indefinite incarceration’
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All of this suggests he could be in prison for some time. While some view that as a problem he can end at any time by purging his contempt, others have expressed disquiet about his predicament. His case has attracted considerable attention here and overseas, including in the UK, the United States and Canada.
That, he says, creates a powerful incentive for a breach of orders “in order to create political martyrdom or to push a particular point of view”. A Private Member’s Contempt of Court Bill, sponsored by Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan, was introduced in 2017, seeking to put contempt of court on a statutory footing. It lapsed with the dissolution of the Dáil and Seanad but its proposals are included in the programme for government.
Just last year, Mr Justice Senan Allen considered the law on contempt in the case of Fergal Deery, who had spent a total 115 days in custody for contempt since December 2nd, 2020. That arose from a long-running dispute between Mr Deery and a company, WardGlade Ltd, after it acquired properties from a receiver appointed over properties in Monaghan town previously controlled by members of his family.
The law provides that imprisonment is “the remedy of last resort” and “it seems to me to follow that it should not endure beyond the time that is absolutely necessary,” he said.
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