An advisory committee recommended to ministers that Judge Kelly take on the presidency following the planned appointment of current president Judge Colin Daly to the Circuit Court.

Judge Kelly was appointed to the District Court in 2010. He was previously a practising solicitor, having graduated from University College Dublin in 1978 and joining the roll of solicitors in 1979.

A native of Leixlip in Co Kildare, where he once served as town councillor, he established his own successful legal practice in his native county in 1982 and practised there until his appointment as a judge.