PLANS FOR the establishment of the long-awaited judicial council are back on track following the establishment of a working group to advance a Judicial Council Bill, The Irish Times has learned. The council is expected to create a procedure for dealing with complaints against members of the judiciary, as well as providing for judicial training.
The two-person working group is made up of a representative of Chief Justice John Murray and of the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform, Brian Lenihan. Mr Lenihan has expressed confidence that, following the establishment of the working group, the details of the proposed Bill can be finalised in the reasonably near future.
Discussions between the judiciary and the department on this matter have been going on for years, since it was first proposed by the then chief justice, Mr Justice Ronan Keane, in a lengthy report from a committee he chaired in 2000.
The report provided for a representative body for the entire judiciary, with subcommittees to deal with judicial conduct and ethics, judicial training and the pay and conditions of judges.
It also provided for sanctions for judges who breached the code of conduct, ranging from a private reprimand, to a public reprimand, to a recommendation that the Oireachtas take the steps provided for in the Constitution to remove the judge in question. It could also recommend education or training in specific areas.
This report provided the basis for draft legislation, which was sent to the judiciary for its observations in 2004. However, that year Judge Brian Curtin of the Circuit Court was acquitted on a technicality of possessing child pornography, leading to a proposal in the Oireachtas for his impeachment.
A committee was set up to investigate the circumstances leading to his being charged. He initiated litigation to challenge this process and the project was put on hold for two more years, pending the decision of the courts on the issue. The rulings of the High and Supreme Courts then fed into the consideration of the issue.
It emerged at the time that the draft legislation prepared by the then minister for justice, Michael McDowell, before the Curtin affair did not follow the Keane proposals in all respects, dealing in considerable detail with the disciplinary mechanism for the judiciary, providing for education and information-sharing, but not for any representative functions for the proposed judicial council.
For a considerable time there was no response from the judiciary, but it is understood that some concerns existed about the potential of this legislation to jeopardise judicial independence.
In December last the present Minister for Justice told The Irish Times he was awaiting the views of the Chief Justice. "If proposals are made I'm open to them." However, he stressed the constitutional difficulties in such legislation.
"With the much bigger judiciary we have now, we need a more formal system. It is important to have a judicial council to give a greater sense of collectivity," he said then.
It is understood the Chief Justice and the Minister have since met and the setting up of a working group is concrete evidence of major progress.