Edward Ryan release ruling reversed on Supreme Court appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Edward Ryan’s High Court release ruling was later reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court, according to a later case-law extract. Mr Justice Barrett delivered the High Court judgment on 2 July 2014, finding Ryan’s continued detention at Midlands Prison unlawful and directing his release.

Ryan had been convicted of two offences, each involving possession of a firearm with intent to cause injury to another under section 27A(1) of the Firearms Act 1964. He received two concurrent sentences of six years’ imprisonment.

His solicitor applied for one-third remission under Rule 59(2) of the Prison Rules 2007. The application was refused, and his solicitor sought a comprehensive explanation.

The rule empowered the Minister for Justice and Equality to grant additional remission where a prisoner showed good conduct through authorised structured activity and the Minister was satisfied that this made the prisoner less likely to reoffend and better able to reintegrate into the community.

The High Court found that the Minister had relied on deficient information and failed to consider relevant information about Ryan’s participation. The judge found that Ryan had engaged in various authorised activities. He had not undertaken others because they coincided with activities he attended or were less attractive to him. Some activities appeared to be preferred by the authorities, but that preference had not been communicated to Ryan.

The judge considered the Minister’s policy of exercising the power “sparingly and in the most exceptional cases” an irrational restriction on his discretion.

The later reversal is recorded in an extract from McGinley v Minister for Justice, dated 28 September 2017. That extract identifies the Supreme Court appeal decision as [2014] IESC 54.