Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that, under the Constitution, judges are appointed by the President on the advice of the Government. Applications are dealt with by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board established pursuant to the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995.

The Personal Insolvency Act 2012 amended the Courts Acts to allow for the creation of a cadre of specialist judges of the Circuit Court to facilitate the speedy consideration of insolvency applications by that court. As I explained when introducing the legislation, although it provides for a maximum of eight specialist judges the Government has decided to nominate six judges at this time. Any future increase in the numbers will depend on the volume of work that arises. In this regard it is my intention that these new judges will also be given jurisdiction to deal with applications to the Circuit Court under the forthcoming assisted decision-making (capacity) Bill 2013 to be published shortly.

As the Deputy may be aware, in order to save Exchequer funds, the 2012 Act provides that eligibility for these new judgeships should be initially confined to serving county registrars with the necessary legal qualifications and practice experience. In accordance with the legislation, I received recommendations from the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board which considered applications from serving county registrars for the posts. In accordance with constitutional procedure, the Government has this week nominated six persons for appointment by the President as a specialist judge of the Circuit Court.

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