Dr. David Kenny:

I will quickly address a few of the points the Senator made. In terms of the promotion up the ranks, we have had a number of judges who have been promoted, including, notably, Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness who began at the Circuit Court and ended up at the Supreme Court. It raises a broader question of whether there should be something of a professional track, without going into the idea of professionalised judging as we see in civil law systems on the Continent. There might be something to be said for trying to have more movement within the different ranks of the Judiciary and to try and encourage that with ongoing judicial education perhaps. This goes to the broader point about training. While I agree with the Senator's point that the greatest role perhaps for academic appointments exists at the appellate level, that is proven to be the case across common law jurisdictions of our peers in this respect. There is also something to be said for having an intensive programme of training to get people ready to walk into a trial court and to oversee it. If we do not have that, we will forever and perpetually only appoint litigators to be judges in those courts. If we recognise, as has been said several times, that the solicitors' profession may hold a great opportunity for finding some more diverse candidates because it is larger and has more routes to entry, then that is something that have to look at. Not all solicitors will have engaged extensively in advocacy at the particular level or done a lot of courtroom work themselves. That may change, but it also may not. We may actually benefit from people having different backgrounds in regulatory law and other bodies of law in various judicial roles who do not yet have experience running a courtroom. That is something that we can provide. It would be an intensive training exercise, but it can be done and we should look into it as a matter of urgency in respect of the judicial council and its education programme that it will be setting up shortly.