A provision in law that married spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other was described in the Dáil on Wednesday as an ‘anomaly’.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan alleged that it is an anomaly that the same protection is not offered to people who are living with each other, particularly, he said, given how ‘modern Ireland exists’.

He suggested the disparity might be resolved by eliminating the provision for married spouses.

The provision stems from the special protection given to marriage in the Constitution, which has itself been criticised in the past by Leo Varadkar as ‘discriminatory’.

The issue came to prominence when a trial judge in 2012 allowed that the cohabiting girlfriends of two accused could not be compelled to give evidence. That decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal this month, though it said that the legislature could extend the non-compellability provision to civil partners and cohabitants if it so wished.