Archives reveal Attorney General’s bid to control judicial appointments

Government papers released to Ireland’s National Archives show that Attorney General John Rogers believed he should be responsible for judicial appointments.

Mr Rogers served as Attorney General between 1984-1987, appointed by Government on the insistence of the Labour Party, who were junior partners in a coalition with Fine Gael.

In a letter sent to Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald in November 1986, Mr Rogers said it would be “more appropriate for matters of judicial selection to be assigned in the first instance to the attorney general rather than the minister for justice”.

The letter predates the later establishment of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board in 1995.

The justice minister at the time was Alan Dukes, who went on to become leader of Fine Gael in 1987.

He explained: “The attorney general is more in touch with the professions and with the courts and is better able to identify persons who have qualities appropriate to holding judicial office.

“Perhaps, more importantly, the attorney is in a position by inquiry or otherwise, to establish whether a candidate for the bench has traits of character that render him or her entirely unsuitable for judicial office.”

No response from the Taoiseach is recorded in the National Archives.