The Minister for Justice will shortly publish a report from the Courts Commission which recommends that judges be made accountable and that there should be a mechanism for dealing with allegations of misconduct.
A working group of the Courts Commission, presided over by Ms Justice Denham, submitted the report on judicial conduct and ethics to the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, last November. A copy was sent to the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton.
The Minister has already had contact with the Chief Justice about the possibility of the early implementation of the recommendations. A Department of Justice spokesman said yesterday that the report would be published within weeks.
The report acknowledges that, in accordance with the Constitution, judges have to be independent of every other State institution but it proposes that a means of establishing a disciplinary system should be established.
The report recognises that there is no mechanism for dealing with allegations of misbehaviour by judges. It proposes that there should be a way of dealing with misbehaviour either on the Bench, or off it.
At present, the judiciary is completely independent and every judge has complete control in his or her own court. However, the independence of the judiciary has led to criticism and controversy, sometimes because of erratic or inconsistent sentencing or for comments made by judges, or for other behaviour.
It is difficult to remove a judge from office. Under article 35.4.1. of the Constitution, a judge of the Supreme Court or High Court cannot be removed except for stated misbehaviour or incapacity. Any removal has to be by a resolution passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas. However, this has never happened.