Garda headquarters and senior operational gardai were not circulated with a list of the district judges empowered to detain suspected drug traffickers under the law currently being challenged before the High Court.
Confusion over the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act led to last week's release of six men arrested in connection with the seizure of £3 million worth of cannabis in Tallaght, Co Dublin.
It has emerged that the list of district judges "nominated" to hear Garda applications for detention for questioning of suspects for periods of up to seven days was never circulated to the Garda.
The list is understood to include three of the 13 Dublin Metropolitan District Court judges, all of the 22 provincial district judges but none of the 11 "movable" district judges.
Dozens of people have been detained under the seven-day Act since its introduction last autumn. It is understood that in a number of cases senior gardai only discovered by accident that some judges were empowered to detain suspects and some were not.
It also appears that not all of the district judges were aware that they had to be nominated under the Act. This led to the problem last Tuesday when the suspects were released after it emerged that Judge Desmond Windle in Dublin, who had granted the Garda request to detain the suspects, was not on the "nominated" list. According to senior Garda sources, there was no circular of who was and who was not a "nominated" district judge. It is also not clear who is ultimately responsible for informing the Garda on such matters.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said it had been the Department's original proposal to the last government that all district judges be empowered to sign the detention orders but this had been rejected by the government. The last government inserted the provision that only certain nominated district judges would be allowed to sign the detention orders.
Under the Act, all Circuit Court judges are empowered to issue the warrants extending the detention period. It is understood the last Government put the limit on district court judges as a means of ensuring the seven-day detention power was kept under tight control and was not seen as a universally available power to detain suspects.
Yesterday, the High Court adjourned the hearing of an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to overturn the decision of Dublin District Court to release the five men held under the Act last week. The application is to be heard by the court on Thursday.
The Minister for Justice faces a second round of questions in the Dail today on the matter. Mr O'Donoghue was at the centre of heated exchanges in the House last week after a District Court judge released the five men. He is expected to make a further statement on the matter today before taking questions. Amid Opposition threats to withdraw all Dail co-operation from the Government unless the Minister agreed to make a statement and answer questions in the House, it emerged yesterday that he would accede to their demands. Mr O'Donoghue has been strongly criticised for failing to answer questions about the relevant authorities' handling of the case.