Sir, – Your editorial of April 4th regarding reform of the judicial appointments system, "Inching closer to real reform", is not, strictly, correct when it states in the first sentence that the two main parties in the present Coalition have done nothing for the past 25 years "to fix a system whose glaring deficiencies were well known from the day of their introduction". The then-government's Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2017 was published in May 2017 and proposed a number of radical changes including: a new Judicial Appointments Commission with a lay chair and lay majority (to be selected by the independent Public Appointments Service); a merit and competency-based selection process including published procedures and interviews; and bringing promotions of serving judges into the system for the first time. This Bill started its journey through the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dáil Éireann on June 27th, 2017, passed the Dáil almost a year later on May 31st, 2018, and entered the Seanad on June 20th, 2018. The Bill took over a year to pass third (committee) stage in the Seanad and a further five months, up to December 11th, 2019, to pass fourth stage. The Bill lapsed on January 14th, 2020, when the Dáil dissolved for the general election. – Yours, etc,
CONAN McKENNA,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Your editorial (April 4th) on the latest efforts to reform what it describes as “this discredited system” does not acknowledge the pioneering work done over the years by former minister Shane Ross in this area.
While the current Bill could and should have gone further, we would not even have got this far without Shane Ross’s tenacity. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN O’DONNELL,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.