David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Before the delegates respond, there is a related issue which brings us back to what Deputy Finian McGrath said about training. If somebody was appointed to a position in, say, the medical profession and remained in that position for many years without receiving any training, we would be concerned. It has come to my notice recently that if a judge specialises in a particular area, say, family law, to the exclusion of others, he or she may find himself or herself constrained and not have full knowledge of what is happening beyond it in society generally. The idea of having a specialist judge has been criticised from that point of view. Perhaps the delegates might like to comment on the general issue. Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill mentioned complaints against judges, an issue which possibly might be linked. We know that it is virtually impossible to impeach or remove a judge from office. If a judge is behaving in a strange way, one can go to a higher court to have changes made. We have all come across cases where judges reacted in strange ways in court in terms of their comments. What is in place to deal with this issue?