O'Callaghan v Ireland and the Attorney General (Approved)

Ruling of the Court delivered by Mr. Justice John MacMenamin dated the 8th day of October, 2021

1.������ This is a ruling in relation to matters arising consequent upon the judgment, delivered on the 30th September, 2021, in the above appeal. In that judgment, it was held that the appellant was entitled to a declaration that his constitutional right under Article 38 to a trial with due expedition had been infringed, and that this infringement should be marked by an award of �5,000 arising from the constitutional violation.

7.������ In fact, the issues which the appellant wished to have � remitted � concerned the conditions of his detention, and the effect of that detention upon his livelihood, health, private and family life, and relationships with others. He wished to advance claims in relation to suffering distress, anxiety, loss, damage, inconvenience, and expense.

9.������ The effect of the submission was, in fact, to have been to seek to re-open issues of alleged damage sustained by the appellant, which had already been closed off by the dismissal of the claim for a miscarriage of justice, and under the ECHR.

12.���� While a court will evince a degree of latitude regarding cases where more than one issue is ventilated, such latitude must be tempered by the findings which were made in the courts below. The question of allocation of time was carefully and extensively dealt with in the Court of Appeal ruling by N� Raifeartaigh J. In the event, she decided that the appellant should be entitled to 45% of his costs in the High Court, and the Court of Appeal.