Ms Maura McNally:

The present system does allow for interview but at present the JAAB does not hold interviews. Personally, I do not see any difficulty with interviews in circumstances where it would be the equivalent of a test of that person's knowledge of the case law, in particular the leading cases in the court to which that person is applying to be a sitting judge. It would also have to question the practice and procedure which would include rules of evidence, the rules of public law and administrative law. All of that would have to be part and parcel of the application and possibly part of the interview.

To recap on the issue of Irish, given that it is our primary language, it is currently one of the questions on the application form under the current JAAB system when people apply to be judges. The number of judges with a proficiency in Irish is diminishing, rather than the opposite. The difficulty boils down to two if not three separate issues. One is entirely to do with the educational system where we all seem to stop speaking Irish as soon as we leave school or college. Second, under the Judicial Council, to my understanding, there is no funding at present in order to support training in the Irish language in order to re-ignite or awaken one's memory of knowledge of Irish because a few weeks or months of speaking Irish would lead to greater capacity to hear a case in Irish and give a determination as Gaeilge. Here at the Bar of Ireland, for example, we recognise that, and we have now established Cumann na Barra, which is a specialised Bar group comprising Irish speakers. Irish is the primary language of the group. They practise primarily in Irish and not only do they do so, but they are trying to involve the rest of us, including me as a dinosaur who has not spoken Irish in 30 years to try to re-ignite my knowledge of the language. Similarly, we are trying to encourage young people coming into the Bar to continue speaking Irish. We are encouraging it across the board, not only from the perspective of judicial appointments or progress at the Bar but as a recognition of it being part of our heritage and culture.