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GAZETTE
M
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W
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1996
Solicitor Judges
A Week is a Long Time in Politics
As the Courts and Court Officers Bill
1995, made progress through the
Oireachtas in the first week of
December, one issue came to
dominate all others both in the media
reporting and in the Dail debate.
Would the Bar's monopoly on senior
judicial appointments
be broken in
favour of solicitors?
ability, soundness of character and
judgement and technical knowledge,
then they should be regarded as
qualified for appointment. It is in the
public interest that appointment to the
judiciary should be based purely on
merit and whether the candidate is a
solicitor or barrister should be
irrelevant."
amendment to the Bill, proposed by
Fine Gael's
Alan Shatter,
calling for
solicitors to be eligible for
appointment to the High Court and the
Supreme Court benches, was
supported by Fine Gael, Labour,
Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat
members of the Dail Legislation and
Security Committee yesterday".
The Irish Times - 4 December 1995
"Chance To Widen The Pool Of
Potential Judges "
was the heading on
a 1000-word article by
Ken Murphy,
Director General of the Law Society,
in which he argued that solicitors,
who represent 80% of the legal
profession, should no longer be
discriminated against in relation to
eligibility for judicial appointments.
The article began "The Dail will have
an opportunity tomorrow to bury a
relic of history which operates against
the public interest. However, whether
the Government is prepared to grasp
this opportunity remains in doubt".
Later in the article the Director
General sought to rebut the argument
that a career in advocacy was the only
suitable training for a judicial
appointment, saying "Experience has
shown that the best advocates do not
necessarily make the best judges and,
correspondingly, that some of the
most able judges did not have
distinguished careers as advocates".
He continued, "In the Society's view,
the person's knowledge of the law and
his or her standing as a lawyer,
independence of mind, judgement and
decisiveness as well as ability to
'chair' and administer his or her court
are among the qualities which are
more desirable than experience as an
advocate. Other personal qualities are
also important: patience, courtesy and,
of course, compassion."
"If candidates can demonstrate that
they have the required intellectual
The Cork Examiner - 5 December
1995
"End Cartel, Says Shatter",
was the
heading on a report which began "A
Government Dail deputy last night
called for an end to the cosy cartel of
barristers and counsel from which
judges are chosen and said that the
narrow pool from which judges are
chosen should be widened to include
practising solicitors".
The article went on to report Deputy
Alan Shatter's view that "there was
nothing unique about barristers which
merit the members of the Bar being
given an exclusive right to sit when
appointed as judges in our higher
courts".
The Irish Independent - 7
December 1995
"Govt. To Lift Curb On High Court
Posts "
was the heading on a report
which began "The Government is
expected to bow to pressure from all
sides of the Dail and allow solicitors
to be appointed to the High Court and
possibly the Supreme Court."
"While the Law Society has
welcomed the proposed move the Bar
Council has come out strongly against
it and warned the Minister not to
make hurried changes 'just for the
sake of change itself by allowing
solicitors to be appointed as judges to
the higher courts".
The report recorded that the Minister
proposed making solicitors eligible for
the Circuit Court only "but an
RTE Radio 1 - Morning Ireland,
7 December 1995
On the morning of the last day of
Committee Stage debate in the Dail,
on which day Minister
Nora Owen,
TD, indicated that she would report
the Government's final position on the
solicitor judges question, the issue
was debated on the Morning
Ireland
radio programme by Chairman of the
Bar Council,
James Nugent,
SC, and
the proposer of the Dail
amendment,
Alan Shatter,
TD. A full transcript of
the debate
follows:
James Nugent SC
David Hanly:
We move on to the vexed question of
the appointment of solicitors as High
Court and Supreme Court Judges. The
Minister for Justice,
Nora Owen,
yesterday told the Dail Committee on
Legislation that she needed time to
consult with her Government