Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Subsection (2)(b) provides that the published statement may set out different selection procedures in respect of appointments to "a particular judicial office where applicants already hold judicial office".For instance, take the case of a vacancy for an ordinary member of the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. Is a District Court judge to be given a different mode of selection procedure from, say, a senior solicitor applying for the job on the basis that a District Court judge is already the holder of judicial office, even though he is, so to speak, a number of rungs down the judicial ladder? Is section 52(2)(b) to be interpreted as really meaning that there can be different selection procedures in relation to applicants who hold judicial office rather than different selection procedures in relation to a particular judicial office? That is the ambiguity at which I am looking.

I can understand if there was a different selection procedure in relation to applicants who hold judicial office. In the way it is phrased, however, it refers to “a particular judicial office where applicants already hold judicial office”. I cannot understand what section 52(2)(b) actually means. It seems to be opaque.