Ms Justice Mary Irvine to be promoted to the Supreme Court

Ms Justice Mary Irvine, the Court of Appeal judge, is to be promoted to the Supreme Court, the Government decided on Tuesday.

Ms Irvine will remain in her position as the chairwoman of the proposed compensation tribunal for women affected by the cervical check controversy last year, which is expected to begin its work later this year.

Ms Irvine has served as a judge on the Court of Appeal for the last four years, and before that was a High Court judge, having been appointed in 2007.

She attended UCD and Kings Inns, and was called to the Bar in 1978. She has three children with her former husband, High Court judge Michael Moriarty.

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A highly regarded barrister before she became a judge, Ms Irvine authored a number of judgments in the Court of Appeal which reduced large personal injury awards in the High Court.

Once formally appointed by the President Michael D Higgins, Ms Justice Irvine will fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Mary Laffoy in 2017.

The Government also decided to nominate three judges to the District Court.

Solicitors John O’Leary and Patricia Harney and barrister Treasa Kelly were approved for appointment by the President following a process at the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.

These three vacancies arose following the appointment of Judge John O’Connor to the Circuit Court on February 7th, 2019, and the retirements of Judge Gerard Haughton on February 7th, 2019, and Judge Timothy Lucey on March 3rd, 2019.

Judicial candidates

New legislation governing the appointment of judges continues to make its way slowly through the Houses of the Oireachtas. The legislation – the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill – will set up a new body to consider judicial candidates for recommendation for promotion to the government. The new body will have a lay majority, although the responsibility for nominating judges must remain constitutionally with the government.

The Bill has been demanded by the Minister for Transport Shane Ross, who has on several occasions denounced the “cronyism” of the present judicial appointments process.

He previously threatened to block future judicial appointments until the new legislation was passed, but Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan insisted that the administration of justice required that retiring judges be replaced.

The Bill has been held up in the Seanad for weeks, where opposition to it has been led by former minister for justice and attorney general Michael McDowell, who is also a senior counsel.

A recent amendment to the proposed legislation has also drawn controversy. Under it judges facing claims of misconduct will have the hearings of complaints made against them held in public.

The Bill initially proposed that such inquiries into judges’ misconduct be held in private unless a public inquiry was needed to “safeguard the administration of justice”.