Bar Council: Time to begin reversing the cuts

David Barniville SC, chairman of the Bar Council, has warned that cuts to judicial salaries and pensions are deterring senior barristers from applying to become judges and he has highlighted the continuing scandal of low rates of pay faced by young barristers which has led to an exodus of nearly 450 from the Law Library over the last three years. Mr Barniville is further concerned that reduced fees for criminal law could ultimately lead to a decline in the quality of prosecution and defence work.

In an interview with the Irish Independent the Bar chairman highlighted cases where younger barristers are earning just €67.40 a day in the District Court.

He said: “We want to have our feet under the table when everybody is seeking to have cuts reversed. We don’t want to be forgotten in that context.”

He added: “By and large we have excellent judges in our courts at all levels, particularly in our superior courts. They do a fine job and are very highly respected around the world. But we would have noticed over the last five, six or seven years that people at the very top of the profession have not been applying or being appointed and that is, I think, for a couple of reasons.

“Firstly, the effect on pay and pension. Secondly, the politicisation of the judiciary around the 2011/12 period where you had the judicial pay referendum and you had a fairly uncomfortable relationship between the judiciary and the then minister in the Government.

“I think people who might have considered applying would have been put off by the job being quite politicised in that way and being treated as a political football.”

Mr Barniville believes that the backdoor introduction of judicial pension changes is having a severe impact.

He pointed out: “The compulsory retirement age is 70, so that means that if you are to be entitled to a full judicial pension, you would have to serve 20 years, which means you would have to be appointed before you were 50.

“That was a really significant change, which wasn’t, as far as I am aware, debated at all. It was stuck in as an appendix. The ideal age for appointing a judge, somebody who has built up years of experience in practice whether as a solicitor or as a barrister, is mid-50s.”