Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The desired effect of the amendment is to provide for the eligibility of District Court judges for appointment to the High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. I have been informed that the Minister has been in consultation with the Judiciary on this matter and is inclined to agree that District Court judges should be eligible for appointment beyond the Circuit Court. However, this is not an appropriate amendment and no such amendment should be inserted in the Courts Bill. Dealing with the District Court judge promotion question without more broadly addressing arguably equally pressing judicial appointments issues, as the Government is committed to doing under the agreed programme for Government, would be an unwise step. The Minister's preferred approach is to defer the issue for consideration in the context of wider reform of the law on appointments, a matter to which I will return.

Section 5(2)(a) of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961, as inserted by section 4 of the Courts and Court Officers Act 2002 and relevant amendments in the Court of Appeal Act 2014, provides that a person shall be qualified for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal or the High Court if he or she is, for the time being, a practising barrister or solicitor of not less than 12 years standing who has practised as a barrister or solicitor for a continuous period of not less than two years immediately before such appointment. Section 5(2)(c) of the 1961 Act provides that a judge of the Circuit Court who has served as a judge for a period of not less than two years should be qualified for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal or the High Court. Therefore, such a judge is not precluded from consideration by the requirement that the person be a practising barrister or solicitor at the time of appointment to the higher courts. As there is no provision equivalent to section 5(2)(c) in respect of District Court judges, they cannot qualify for appointment to the higher courts as they were not considered to be practising at the time of appointment. A similar provision would, therefore, be required to make District Court judges eligible for appointment to courts higher than the Circuit Court. Transitional provisions and other consequential amendments may also be required.

I am aware that the Judiciary is of the view that District Court judges should be eligible for appointment to the High Court. As I have indicated, the Minister agrees with this view and careful consideration needs to be given to the question of whether District Court judges should be eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. Judges of certain European and international courts are also eligible for appointment to the superior courts. For example, a person who, during the period of two years immediately before the appointment concerned, was a judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities is eligible for appointment to the High Court or the Supreme Court. This provision also applies to a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court and certain other European and international courts.

The Minister accepts that there appears to be no good reason that, of all the various categories of judges, the only group specifically excluded from the possibility of appointment as a judge of the High Court or above are District Court judges. She has asked her Department to prepare relevant provisions to make District Court judges eligible for elevation to courts higher than the Circuit Court. However, this is being done in the context of a full, ongoing review of the entire system of judicial appointments. The Government is committed to introducing legislative reforms in this area and a judicial appointments Bill which is being prepared is a commitment in the agreed programme for Government.

The subject matter of the amendments, namely, the eligibility of District Court judges for judicial appointment, is one of a wide range of matters included in the scope of the review to which I referred. As part of this review, a consultation process on the system of judicial appointments was conducted in early 2014. There was a significant response to the call for submissions, with substantive and wide-ranging views received on the legislative framework that provides for eligibility for judicial appointments and the process of appointments. Legislation in this area which may have regard to only one aspect of eligibility for judicial appointments is unlikely to complement the overall reform process required in this area which must be balanced and considered and which, as I stated, the Government proposes to introduce as soon as is practical. On this basis, I ask the Senators to withdraw their amendment in favour of a fully comprehensive reform of the law in the area of judicial appointments which will include changes in the eligibility conditions for serving District Court judges. The amendment is outside the scope of the Bill. The position is similar to that on the previous amendment in that while it is sound in principle, the issue as stake is the mechanism by which the objective is to be achieved.