Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill:

The appointment of solicitors is an important element of that. For example, when I was making the decision to become a legal professional, I simply could not afford to become a barrister so I became a solicitor first. I could not afford the fees for the King's Inns and I certainly could not afford to have no income, in essence, for seven years.

To become a solicitor, I got an apprenticeship that paid my Law Society fees and paid me a stipend. Thus, I qualified as a professional without incurring tens of thousands of euro of debt and would have been able to earn as an employed solicitor from the earliest stage. This was the only route open to me. Had I stayed as a solicitor, given the number of solicitors in the country compared to barristers and the number of appointments made from the Law Library compared with the world of solicitors, the possibilities of becoming a judge from that route are much narrower.