Chief Justice restates judiciary’s concern about appointments bill

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Justice Clarke rejected suggestions that the judiciary are an “insiders’ cartel” and restated the judiciary’s concern over proposed new appointments rules.

Describing relations between Government and the judiciary as “tense” in recent times, he said: “I think the concern is that it is not the best model for appointing judges, simply put, there are better models. Government knows our position and it hasn’t changed.”

He added: “I think the position of the judiciary was made clear in the letter from the five presidents so I don’t differ from that. We have said what we have to say on it, but we will live with whatever comes out at the end of the day.”

“We would regard the methods of appointment as important because if we don’t get the right people then the judiciary is not as strong as it might be, and that is the concern.”

“I don’t think there was an insiders’ cartel as it was described. The judiciary is more disparate than people give it credit for.”

Mr Justice Clarke also outlined how he plans to free up judges by delegating some functions to other judicial officers.

“There are matters that need not be handled by judges, you may have suitable people to handle the more routine administrative matters,” he said.

“A judge’s primary job is deciding on cases, so maybe more of the work in getting the case ready for a focused, shorter and therefore cheaper hearing could be given to other officers. But they would need to be reasonably experienced and competent people and they would need to be paid otherwise you wouldn’t get the people.”

In the interview, Mr Justice Clarke also noted the judiciary’s concern over the judicial misconduct proposals set out in the Judicial Council Bill.

He said: “It is something I want to talk to colleagues about. The one thing the judiciary have been concerned with is the very low threshold for the definition of misconduct.

“I think that is connected with some of the other issues. I don’t want to adopt a position without having the chance to talk to those who were involved in the negotiations but it is something we will have to take a position on.”