Jailing Enoch Burke for contempt of court is like using a "sledgehammer to crack a nut", Ciara Kelly has said.
The Newstalk Breakfast presenter was speaking after the former teacher was last night sent back to Dublin's Mountjoy Prison.
He was arrested at Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath yesterday after refusing to abide by a court order instructing him to stay away.
Enoch Burke was dismissed for gross misconduct in January last year.
He claims he was fired because he refused to accept transgenderism at the school.
The school says he was let go because of his behaviour after his principal asked her staff to refer to a transitioning student by a new name and pronoun.
At the High Court in Dublin last night a Judge again ruled that he was in breach of the existing court order and sent him back to prison for a third time.
Enoch Burke was released from prison during the summer holidays but returned to the school when the new term began.
Enoch Burke leaving Wilson Hospital School in Co Westmeath, 28-8-23. Image: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie
Ciara Kelly said she believes jailing him is "a waste of a prison space" at this point.
"I'm all about law and order [but] there are people who are served less time in Irish prison who have committed violent crimes than Enoch Burke at this point," she said.
"I understand that the courts do not know what to do with Enoch Burke.
"[Whether you] agree with him or disagree with him is a separate issue...all he's actually done is stood outside the school."
Ciara said there should be a better way to deal with the issue.
"It is my belief that he's there for his own religious reasons and that he thinks that that's what he's doing - he's protesting on the basis of his religion and that this is a religious persecutory matter," she said.
"I just wonder could we not mediate this in some different way?"
Ciara said locking up Enoch Burke strikes her as using "a sledgehammer to crack a nut".
'He's in contempt of court'Presenter Shane Coleman said there is more at play here than simply standing outside a school.
"That's not all he has done - he has refused to comply with a court order," he said.
"There was conclusive evidence put before the court, which was not denied by Mr Burke, that he has breached the terms of the injunction - he's in contempt of court.
"The problem is if somebody is continuously in contempt of court the State can't just ignore that.
"I don't have a particular solution to this but what I do know is that any State that lacks authority... that's a recipe for disaster."
Ciara suggested Enoch Burke should "just be ignored", adding: "At the end of the day all he's doing is standing outside a school".
Main image: Newstalk Breakfast presenter Ciara Kelly, 3-9-24. Image: Newstalk
