Caroline Biggs SC, Marguerite Bolger SC, Emily Egan SC, Cian Ferriter SC and David Holland SC will take up the new seats on the High Court bench created through legislation earlier this summer.

Ministers have also agreed to appoint solicitor Patricia Cronin as an ordinary judge of the District Court and to move Judge Alan Mitchell from the District Court to the Special Criminal Court.

The government has described the appointment of five more High Court judges as “one of the largest increases in judges approved in recent memory and a very significant investment by the State in judicial resources”.

However, Ms Justice Mary Irvine, president of the High Court, recently called for the appointment of 15 to 20 additional judges, warning that five more judges was not enough to handle the coming “tsunami of litigation”.