A new system for appointing judges, which comes into operation this week, will be an “important safeguard” for judicial independence, the Chief Justice has said.
The Judicial Appointments Commission, comprising five judicial and four lay members with the Attorney General a non-voting member, begins its public work this week with a new website and notices for judicial vacancies.
All candidates for appointment or promotion to the Irish, EU and international courts will undergo new application and interview procedures.
In a statement on Monday, Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell, who chairs the commission, hailed the new system as “an important development in the history of the Irish judiciary”.
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It introduces “significant changes” and will deliver on a programme of selection for judicial vacancies “based on an unambiguous legislative requirement that judicial appointments continue to be based on merit”.
Empowering an independent commission to recommend fewer persons for judicial appointment than under the previous appointments system “will bring Ireland closer into line with international requirements and will be an important safeguard for judicial independence”, he said.
The commission will collaborate with the wider legal community and others to work towards a judiciary that reflects the increasing diversity in the community, he said.
“Public confidence in the judiciary begins with confidence in the system of judicial appointment,” Mr Justice O’Donnell said.
The Judicial Appointments Commission Act 2023, aimed at reforming the system of judicial selection procedures here, set out a new process for selection of candidates for recommendation to the Government for appointment as judges.
The Act provided for setting up the commission, which was established last January, instead of the now-dissolved Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.
The Act says recommendations for judicial office shall be based on merit. In relation to the courts here, its objectives include recommendations for equal numbers of men and women and reflecting the diversity of the population and proficiency in the Irish language.
Three persons will be recommended for one vacancy and an additional two recommendations for a second and additional vacancies. This would mean, for example, seven recommendations for three vacancies. Only those recommended by the commission may be appointed.
The commission members are: the Chief Justice; Court of Appeal president Ms Justice Caroline Costello; High Court president Mr Justice David Barniville; Circuit Court president Judge Patricia Ryan; District Court president Judge Paul Kelly; and two judges elected by the Judicial Council. They are Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty of the High Court and District Court judge Alan Mitchell.
The four lay members, nominees of the Minister for Justice, are: Bernie Gray, a partner in consultancy practice Betterboards; Rónán Kennedy, associate professor in the school of law at University of Galway; Dr Terence McWade, former chief executive of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland; and Eleanor O’Higgins, adjunct associate professor at the college of business at University College Dublin.
Attorney General Rossa Fanning is a non-voting member.
The presidents of the court divisions are members because the 2023 Act provides, where the Commission is selecting and recommending candidates for appointment to judicial office in a particular division, the president of that division shall be the member for the purpose of performance of that function.
