The Gazette 1994

GAZETTE

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1994

Focus on Access t o t he Profession, Legal

Posts and t he Cour ts

While the publication of the report of

the Beef Tribunal dominated the

period under review, with much

coverage and comment about the level

of fees paid to counsel appearing for

the various parties at the Tribunal,

nonetheless, a range of issues affecting

access to the legal profession, legal

posts and the courts were the subject

of articles in the print media.

Exclusion of solicitors from posts in

the Attorney General's office

The

Irish Independent, Cork Examiner,

Irish Press

and

Evening Press

of 28

July reported on the Viewpoint publish-

ed in the July edition of the

Gazette,

noting that the Law Society was calling

for an end to the restrictive practice

which renders solicitors ineligible for

appointments in the office of the

Attorney General, and that the Society

had argued that solicitors were more

than qualified to carry out such work.

Does the law have to be so slow?

A feature article by

Kieran Conway

the

Irish Press

on 29 July focused on

the "delays and inefficiencies which

are endemic in Ireland's legal system."

The article dealt with many issues

raised by the Law Society and the Bar

Council in their joint submission to the

Minister for Justice on the Courts

Service, and noted that its key reform

proposal was that the management of

the Courts should be vested in an

executive agency. The article reported

a view advanced by the President of

the High Court, Mr. Justice

Liam

Hamilton,

that an executive agency

would amount to an interference with

the administration of justice which the

Constitution reserved to judges and

commented that, notwithstanding the

President's views, "the law bodies

have held their ground". The article

quoted the Department of Justice as

saying that the submission from the

legal bodies was "under

consideration". The journalist

commented that "observers are not

hopeful of anything radical emerging

from this process - least of all do they

expect the Department to agree to the

proposal for an executive agency."

The journalist also commented that "it

seems that the only answer the

Government has to the country's

deeply rooted court problems is to

throw a few more judges at them."

Judicial appointments procedure

"Who judges the judges?" was the title

of a feature article in the

Irish Press

9 August which examined the manner

in which judges are selected "without

even the veneer of public scrutiny".

The article stated "there is no input

formal or otherwise from the Law

Society or Bar Council and there are no

known criteria". In the article

Michael

McDowell TD

was quoted as suggesting

a commission for appointments and

Gay Mitchell TD

suggested that while

the power of appointment should

remain with the Government, there

should be scrutiny of it by an

Oireachtas Committee. The author of

the article,

Kieran Conway,

commented

that there was little likelihood of reform

as the Department of Justice had stated

that there were no plans to change the

present system.

The Irish Times

on 29 July reported

that greater transparency in the process

of appointing judges had been called

for by Dr. Eamonn Hall, Chief

Examiner in Constitutional law for the

Incorporated Law Society. The article

quoted Dr. Hall as saying "at present

no one knows how judicial

appointments are made here or what

criteria are applied". He called for a

judicial appointments commission to

advise the Government on the

appointment of judges and an

ad hoc

Oireachtas Committee to interview

candidates for Supreme Court

positions, according to the article.

"Cap" is unworkable

The President of the Law Society,

Michael O'Mahony,

was reported in an

article in

Business and Finance

on 4

August as saying that the introduction

of a ' 'cap" on personal injury awards

would be "unworkable and probably

unconstitutional". Michael O'Mahony

said that "any move to fix damages

through the introduction of an arbitrary

points system based on a categorisation

of injuries could have the result of

depriving a claimant of his right of

access to the courts. The judge,

meanwhile, would be left there as an

administrative officer without a

judicial role."

The business pages of the national daily

newspapers reported on 11 August that

1993 had been a growth year for the

Irish insurance industry but that the

non-life sector was experiencing a

continued rise in claims costs compared

to revenue growth according to statis-

tics compiled by the Irish Insurance

Federation. The articles quoted the

Deputy President of the IIF,

John

Gibson,

as saying that consumers could

not expect any meaningful reduction in

premiums until the causes of high

claims were tackled. He said the

insurance industry itself was doing all it

could to bring costs down but some

factors, such as the high cost of each

claim in Ireland, were beyond its con-

trol. Another factor was the inefficiency

and expense of the Irish legal system.

The article in

The Irish Times

question-

ed whether the insurance industry

would translate lower personal injury

payments into lower premiums and

stated that, according to a Government

source, a proposal was being seriously

considered to set up an independent

monitoring committee for the insurance

industry. Such a committee would have

responsibility for ensuring that lower

compensation payments would lead to

lower premiums.

Dublin Corporation complains

about claims

The

Irish Independent

of 25 July

reported that local authorities were

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