A retiring judge said yesterday that Circuit Court judges were not being paid enough.
Tributes were paid to Judge Kieran O'Connor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on the his retirement from the bench after 47 years as a lawyer and judge.
Court 29 resounded to rounds of applause for the judge as speaker after speaker paid tribute to his kindness, courtesy, generosity and consideration to all who had met him during his long and distinguished legal career.
Judge O'Connor noted he had been a judge for just 12.76 years since his appointment in 1989.
He said Circuit Court judges were not being paid sufficiently for the very onerous work they performed and had been treated "disastrously" in the Buckley 2 Report. Circuit Court salaries were too far below those of High Court judges.
Judge O'Connor was joined on the bench for his final sitting by the President of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Smyth, and Judges Liam Devally, Dominic Lynch, Michael White, Elizabeth Dunne, Patrick McCartan and Yvonne Murphy. Mr Denis McCullough SC, for the Bar Library, recalled he was welcomed on his first day to the Bar Library by Judge O'Connor with whom he "devilled", and he noted the poignancy of the occasion when he was now wishing him farewell and a long and happy retirement.
Mr Justice Smyth said Judge O'Connor always wished to hold out some hope of a better life for offenders who came before him and had developed the review system towards this end.
"He took pride in that system and had many successful graduates which gave him great satisfaction," said Mr Justice Smyth..
Judge O'Connor was born in Dublin. His father, John S O'Connor, was a solicitor and acted as election agent in the presidential elections of Sean T. O'Kelly and Eamon De Valera.
He was educated in Belvedere College, UCD and Kings Inn. He was called to the Bar in 1954 and took silk in 1973.
As well as being a judge, he was involved in the Drugs Court planning committee, was a member if the Circuit Court Rules Committee and was the official complaints referee who decided on matters relating to interference with postal and telecommunications messages.
He is a widower with two adult children.
Some of the more high profile cases he dealt with were the Derry O'Rourke sexual assault trial and the Aer Lingus Holiday fraud trial.