The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell tonight admitted neither the Attorney General nor officials in his Department were made aware the unprecedented Supreme Court challenge on the statutory rape law was being taken.
In a further twist to the controversy which has followed the case, Mr McDowell said he believed Attorney General Rory Brady had not been made personally aware of it but that officials in his office may have known.
And he went on to say that the Director of Public Prosecutions James Hamilton had taken charge of the case.
"I believe in this case it was agreed between the Attorney General's office and the Director of Public Prosecution's office that the DPP's office would have carriage of the appeal," he told RTÉ's 6 o'clock news.
"It is strange perhaps that the Department of Justice, which has channels of communication, wasn't aware of this but that's the situation, they weren't and there is no point in me pretending that they were."
Mr McDowell also revealed that the DPP, up until the last few weeks, had continued to lay charges under the now defunct Section 1.1 of the Criminal Law Act 1935, apparently unaware of the frailties of such cases.
He said the DPP did not seem to be aware of any imminent danger that would justify abandoning use of the law. The minister claimed, however, that there was very stringent legislation still in place protecting children.
And he refuted allegations that the Law Reform Commission flagged up the dangers of statutory rape legislation over a decade ago warning that it was unconstitutional.
"People are now arguing that the 1990 Law Reform Commission paper was a warning that it was unconstitutional, that's not so," he said.
"I mean why would the Director of Public Prosecutions have continued to use the section for all the years since if he thought it was infirm.
"And the other point is why would no defence lawyer in the 16 years since 1990 have challenged it if they thought that the Law Reform Commission's proposal in 1990 was based on a proposition that this was unconstitutional."