Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I mentioned in last week's debate on this issue that in 2011 the Irish Independentsurveyed 168 members of the Bench in Ireland and found that 56, or exactly one third, had what were described as personal or political connections to political parties in this State. In 2012, Mr. Justice Peter Kelly said that appointments to the Supreme Court were "purely political".In the same year, Judge Michael Pattwell said his own appointment was political.

The Bill might make judicial appointments somewhat less nakedly partisan in party-political terms. That is progress of sorts. However, it will not tackle the issue of the very strong class bias which exists in the Judiciary and which is a major feature thereof. Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned King's Inns and went back to the days of Henry VIII in that regard. I do not intend to go back several centuries but will deal with the present. To study for one year at the King's Inns, one would have to fork out €12,560, which is a very significant sum for a year's tuition. Very few ordinary people could come within an ass's roar of affording those fees. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that there are now 79 unemployment black spots in the State. How many children who live in those areas have the possibility of going on to become judges in this State? Will the profession continue to be stuffed full of people from more privileged areas and elitist schools? The average salary of an Irish judge is three times the average for judges in other European countries. How could they not have the outlook of a ruling elite in this society when that is their vantage point? There is an interesting detail in the Bill in terms of class, which is that judicial appointments will now be permitted, if the legislation is passed, to come from the ranks of legal academics but only those from universities, not institutes of technology.

The class bias in the Judiciary is starkly shown in cases involving social struggle and social protest. All Members know the case of the Rossport five, who were jailed, and of the 20 men and women from working class communities who were imprisoned in 2003 in the course of the struggle against bin charges, as well as the multiplicity of injunctions that have been issued against trade unions and trade unionists such as in the Greyhound and Aer Lingus disputes in 2014. The class bias of the Judiciary when dealing with social protest and its tendency to overstep the mark in such cases has historically been the case, although every cloud has a silver lining. That tendency has served to raise the consciousness of working class people of the need for their independent political action and in the past has spurred on the development of new left-wing political forces. A famous example is that of the Taff Vale case in 1901 in which it was ruled that unions were liable for the loss of profits of employers in a strike situation and a penalty of £42,000, comprising a fine and court costs, was levied on the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, which had a huge politicising effect in working class communities in Britain. It showed the need to have workers' representation in parliament and was a key moment in the rise and development of what was later known as the British Labour Party. In Ireland, a very important trade dispute took place in Wexford in 1912. That was the lockout of Irish Transport and General Workers Union, ITGWU, members from the foundries in Wexford town. The forces of the State were used in a crude way against workers who were asserting their rights. There were baton charges against workers, the murder of a man named Michael O'Leary and the jailing of the leader of the strike, an ITGWU organiser named P.T. Daly. In terms of the effect that had on the consciousness of working people throughout the country, it was a key moment in the move towards the development of the Irish Labour Party, which, once upon a time, was a party for working people. The party was founded later in 1912 by James Connolly and James Larkin as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress.

Those are important points to bear in mind when we are looking at a Judiciary with a class bias which will deal with social protest overstepping the mark and the effect that it has on the consciousness of large numbers of ordinary people.

If this Bill is passed, the party political bias in the Judiciary may be somewhat lessened, which is a minor step forward, but the class bias will remain. The song will remain the same on that front, and it is an issue that the labour movement, the working class movement and the left movement as it develops will have to deal with in a concrete fashion in the years ahead.

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