On a matter of personal explanation, may I take this, my first, opportunity of contradicting a statement which, according to a report contained in to-day's "Irish Times," was made towards the close of the debate last evening upon the amendment to the motion of Deputy Lemass? According to this report, the following remarks are attributed to Deputy Flinn:—
"There had been quoted in that House a considered judgment of Mr. Justice Hanna, and the Minister for Justice had the impudence to dismiss it in a single word by saying that it was wrong."
In this House, I have never stated that a judgment of Mr. Justice Hanna was wrong. If the Deputy is correctly reported, he has entirely misstated what I said. He did not give us, or give the House, any particular allusion to the date to which he referred, but, so far as my recollection goes, the only occasion upon which I made any reference in any way to Mr. Justice Hanna was in a debate which took place on the 10th November last. In that debate I did not say that the decision of Mr. Justice Hanna was wrong. I did say, to use a technical expression, that an "obiter dictum" contained in that judgement was wrong. Perhaps I had better define what the expression "obiter dicta" means. It means statements made by judges which do not go to the foundation of their judgments, which are not necessary for their judgments, or have nothing at all to do with the judgements which they are delivering, and which, in consequence, cannot be taken as statements laying down the law. I will now quote from the official report of that date:—
Mr. O'CONNELL: We have again a statement of a High Court judge, and it is on that I founded a statement which I used here before, that, in fact, this Act did create a new crime of being a suspect.
Mr. FITZGERALD-KENNEY: That is wrong.
Mr. O'CONNELL: The judge may be wrong, but we will leave is between the lawyers.
I expressed the view that a statement made by a High Court judge entirely "obiter" was wrong. I am still of that view, but that is an entirely different thing from stating that a decision given by a High Court judge was wrong. The duty of the judges in this State is to lay down the law, and their judgments, as far as they are declaratory of the common law, or as far as they are interpretative of statutory law, are binding on this House, and should not, must not, and ought not to be challenged in this House, and I certainly would not challenge them. If that be the occasion to which Deputy Flinn alluded, then Deputy Flinn has made a misstatement of fact. If that be not the occasion, I challenge the Deputy to state to what occasion he referred.
