THE judiciary was not informed of or consulted about the Government's decision to set up a non statutory courts service board The Irish Times has learned.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, confirmed this yesterday when he said that in hindsight it would have been better "if we had discussed all of that with the judiciary before making the announcement".
Commenting on the Government's acceptance on Friday that from the outset the board would have to be statutory for constitutional reasons, Mr Bruton indicated that the U turn recognised and respected the judiciary's independence.
"We knew that time was not very long," he said. "We were facing a confidence vote on this issue in the Dail."
It was also learned that the Government was forced to change the board's composition in order to separate the roles of the executive and the judiciary under the Constitution.
When the proposal was first recommended by the working group chaired by Mrs Justice Susan Denham last May, the Government decided to add a 16th member to the board, giving judges and non judges equal representation. The working group had proposed a 15 member board with a majority of judges.
At Tuesday's Government meeting, which abandoned the idea of an immediate non statutory board, the Government approved the addition of an extra judge to board membership. The Chief Justice will nominate this judge in respect of his or her expertise or experience.
By approving this addition, the Government has restored the judicial majority. This was necessitated by the constitutional requirement to have the judiciary separate from and independent of the executive.
Besides constitutional considerations, it would have been impossible for the Government to set up an interim courts service without repealing the eighth schedule to the 1961 Courts (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1961.
