Minister for Transport Shane Ross has reached an agreement with Fine Gael Ministers to fill vacancies for judges in return for accelerating a new judicial appointments system.

It means Mr Ross has backed down on his threat to veto the appointment of new judges until new legislation is passed, though he has extracted guarantees that some of the reforms he has championed will be bought forward early in the new year.

It is understood the appointments process for two District Court judges will begin shortly, with a further two to follow in the new year.

In addition, Mr Ross has agreed three specialist Circuit Court judges will be transferred from dealing with insolvency matters to the general Circuit Court.

This move follows criticism last week by the president of the Circuit Court, Judge Raymond Groarke, who complained he needed more judges appointed to fill vacancies on the bench.

Judicial Appointments Bill

In return for agreeing to the new judges, Mr Ross has secured Fine Gael’s agreement that the general scheme of the new Judicial Appointments Bill - containing a summary of each section - will be published in the next 10 days.

After that, the Justice Committee will conduct pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill in January and the full legislation will be published no later than at the end of January.

Mr Ross’s requests that judges be required to file an annual declaration of interests - which he wants included in separate legislation to oversee judicial conduct - were not discussed by the Cabinet.

The Department of Justice has repeatedly said it is preparing both pieces of legislation, but that they involve “complex issues”.