Judges selection process may be reviewed if no diversity among candidates – McEntee

The process for appointing judges may be reviewed again if there is not sufficient diversity among candidates being put forward, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said.

Launching the legislation that will underpin the new Judicial Appointments Commission on Thursday, Ms McEntee said that the new body will be required to issue a statement outlining its commitment to diversity.

“We’re asking the Commission to make sure that the selection process and that judges that are appointed reflect the people that they serve,” she said. While she anticipates that will be the case, she said if the same type of people are consistently being put forward to the Minister for appointment, the process would be re-examined.

“The first thing is that the Minister would probably engage with the Commission and of course if we continue to see no change, then obviously, legislation, you can always change it, there’s always room for review.”

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The new Commission, which will be composed of four judges, four lay people, the attorney general (who will not have a vote) and will be chaired by the Chief Justice. Two judges – one male, one female – will be appointed by the judicial council. They will respectively come from the ranks of former practising barristers and solicitors. The president of the High Court – who can be replaced by another court president – will also sit on the JAC, which will replace the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.

A director of the JAC will be appointed by the Minister. The Commission will forward three names, rather than the original five envisaged by the draft legislation when it was first published. They will not be ranked, as some stakeholders such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties had sought.

Ms McEntee defended this, saying that ranking would mean the appointments were effectively being made by the Commission rather than by the Government, as is stipulated in the Constitution.

“All three of those names will come through a very rigid process,” she said. “All three will have to go through interview and so there will be that element of discretion, but that is very, very clearly set out under the Constitution.”

She said she wanted to ensure that the Commission is reflective of society, and that it will be gender-balanced to the greatest extent possible, with two male and two female members recommended by the Public Appointments Service for the lay roles.

Mask mandates

She said the Government would “take on board” if advice from the chief medical officer changed on the need to reintroduce mask mandates or other public health restrictions, but that the Government would be led by Dr Tony Holohan’s advice on this front, who has “been very clear that there is no need or requirements to introduce masks”.

“It’s been very clearly stated to us that there would be no benefit or that it wouldn’t in any way change the way in which this virus is now currently spreading and as we know, it’s obviously very much in our communities,” she said, adding: “The Minister for Health this week suggested that in order for us to actually scale back the manner in which this is spreading because it is so virulent, you would have to move to a potential level five lockdown, I don’t think and the chief medical officer and the Minister has said himself, that we don’t think that that’s appropriate, or at the scale that we need to be.”