Sir, – The Irish Times offers us two opposing legal views of the Taoiseach's comments on an issue arising from the Jobstown trial ("Varadkar comments could delay Jobstown trial, says lawyer", July 10th). A person who is described as one of the "State's top criminal lawyers" finds the Taoiseach's remarks to be ill-advised and expands on how they might be used by the defence in a future trial but chooses, for reasons that are not readily apparent, to remain anonymous. The Attorney General takes the view that the Taoiseach was free to comment because the trial is over.
On balance perhaps more credence can be attached to the Attorney General's view in that at least one knows where it's coming from, while The Irish Times could not muster an opposing view to which an authoritative legal source would feel able to add his or her name. – Yours, etc,
JOE AHERN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.