Law Society president hits out at judicial appointment delays

The president of the Law Society of Ireland has said a halt on judicial appointments is causing “a crisis” in Ireland’s courts.

The Independent Alliance has pledged to use its role in Government to block appointments until legislation is passed to introduce a judicial appointments commission with a lay majority.

Stuart Gilhooly told the Irish Independent: “We are already into a crisis. The Court of Appeal is the biggest problem, because there is a huge backlog there. As I understand it, there are 800 cases waiting to be heard.

“The difficulty with having to wait for judges to be appointed is if this takes a long period of time, we could have a situation where there are up to five vacancies in the Circuit Court, further vacancies in other courts and the Court of Appeal problem only getting worse and worse.”

Mr Gilhooly said he also wanted to see more solicitors appointed to the benches, which have traditionally been dominated by barristers.

Leading judges have said a halt on appointments is “disastrous” and The Bar of Ireland has warned delaying them may “not respect the constitutional right of access to the Courts and the obligation to ensure that justice is administered speedily and efficiently”.

However, Independent TD and Government minister Shane Ross has said he believes this is the “only way to force reform”.