Judicial appointments bill will have ‘enormous impact’ on public confidence

The Judicial Appointments Bill will have “an enormous impact on the confidence that people have in the system of appointing judges in this country”, Shane Ross has said.

The Independent TD and Transport Minister, who championed the bill, spoke to The Irish Times after Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald secured Cabinet approval for the bill.

Mr Ross said: “It’s very important that for the first time there will be transparency in the appointment of judges.

“It’s very important that we see that people are appointed for the first time on merit and absolutely unquestionably on merit.”

Mr Ross also defended his efforts to block judicial appointments at the Cabinet last year, saying: “I made it clear all along that I do not like the way they are appointing judges at the moment. I don’t like the fact that they have been appointing judges under the old system and I made it a condition at one stage that they didn’t appoint any more.

“We then came to an agreement that they could appoint more judges because there was a case being made by many that the system was clogged up and we didn’t want to see justice denied to anybody. Last week’s appointments were just part of that pattern.

“I don’t want to hold up the work of the courts. And I’m not going to be accused of that. This is very, very important.”