Senior judges call judicial appointments bill ‘harmful’

Ireland’s most senior judges criticised the Government’s reform of judicial appointments in a previously-unreleased letter sent to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in June, The Irish Times reports.

The letter, released to the paper under Freedom of Information laws, is signed by the former Chief Justice of Ireland, Mrs Justice Susan Denham, as well as Mr Justice Seán Ryan, president of the Court of Appeal; Mr Justice Peter Kelly, president of the High Court; Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, president of the Circuit Court; and Mrs Justice Rosemary Horgan, president of the District Courts.

The judges wrote that they would be “failing in our duty” if they did not “state our clear view that the Bill, if enacted, will be harmful to the administration of justice which we serve”.

They also say the proposed new Judicial Appointments Commission is not “the product of any independent analysis or report”, does not “accord with international best practice” and does not “follow the precedent or experience of any comparable jurisdiction”.

They claim the new system would be an “expensive, cumbersome and unwieldy process which will be prone to dispute and challenge”.

They continue: “More fundamentally it does not achieve the publicly stated objective of removing political influence from the appointment process. Indeed, the appointment process is further politicised.”

The Government’s controversial Judicial Appointments Commission Bill passed the second stage in the Dáil last month.

The next step for the legislation is for it to be examined by the Oireachtas select committee on justice and equality.