PART 3

Judicial Appointments

8. —Section 16 of the Act of 1995 is amended by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (7):

“(7) (a) When submitting the name of a person to the Minister under this section, the Board shall indicate whether the person satisfies the requirements of subsection (2) of section 5 (as amended by section 4 of the Courts and Court Officers Act, 2002) of the Act of 1961 (in the case of an appointment to the office of ordinary judge of the Supreme Court or of ordinary judge of the High Court), subsection (2) or (2B) of section 17 (as amended by section 5 of the Courts and Court Officers Act, 2002) of the Act of 1961 (in the case of an appointment to the office of ordinary judge of the Circuit Court) or subsection (2) or (3) of section 29 of the Act of 1961 (in the case of an appointment to the office of judge of the District Court) in respect of appointment to the judicial office for which the person wishes to be considered, and the Board shall not recommend a person to the Minister under this section unless the person satisfies those requirements.

(b)  (i) The Board shall recommend a person to the Minister under this section only if the Board is of the opinion that the person—

(I) has displayed in his or her practice as a barrister or a solicitor a degree of competence and a degree of probity appropriate to and consistent with the appointment concerned,

(II) in the case of an appointment to the office of ordinary judge of the Supreme Court or of ordinary judge of the High Court, has an appropriate knowledge of the decisions, and an appropriate knowledge and appropriate experience of the practice and procedure, of the Supreme Court and the High Court,

(III) is suitable on the grounds of character and temperament,

(IV) complies with the requirements of section 19 of this Act, and

(V) is otherwise suitable.

(ii) In determining whether the requirements of subparagraph (i)(II) of this paragraph are satisfied, the Board shall have regard, in particular, to the nature and extent of the practice of the person concerned insofar as it relates to his or her personal conduct of proceedings in the Supreme Court and the High Court whether as an advocate or as a solicitor instructing counsel in such proceedings or both.”.

9. —Section 17 of the Act of 1995 is amended by the substitution of “subsection (2)(b) of section 5 (as amended by section 4 of the Courts and Court Officers Act, 2002) of the Act of 1961” for “the provisions of paragraphs (c) and (d) of section 5(2) (as inserted by section 28 of this Act) of the Act of 1961”.

10. —The Act of 1995 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 17:

“17A.—A person who for the time being holds the office of—

(a) judge of the Court of Justice,

(b) judge of the Court of First Instance attached to that Court,

(c) Advocate-General of the Court of Justice,

(d) judge of the European Court of Human Rights established under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms done at Rome on the 4th day of November, 1950,

(e) judge of the International Court of Justice established under the Charter of the United Nations,

(f) judge of the International Criminal Court established under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court done at Rome on the 17th day of July, 1998, upon the entry into force of that Statute,

(g) judge of an international tribunal within the meaning of section 2 of the International War Crimes Tribunals Act, 1998 ,

shall vacate the office concerned before the President appoints the person to a judicial office.”.

11. —The Act of 1995 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 20:

“20A.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the Board shall, as soon as may be, but not later than 6 months, after the end of each year, make a report in writing to the Minister of its activities during that year, and the Minister shall cause copies of the report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(2) The first report under subsection (1) of this section shall be in respect of the period from the passing of the Courts and Court Officers Act, 2002, to the end of the year in which that Act is passed.

(3) The Minister may, after consultation with the Board, give directions to it regarding the form of a report under this section and the manner in which any matter is to be addressed in such a report.

(4) Subject to subsection (5) of this section, the Board shall include in a report under this section such information relating to the performance of its functions as the Minister may from time to time specify and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, it may include information on one or more of the following:

(a) the number of persons considered by the Board for appointment to each vacancy in a judicial office in the Supreme Court, the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court respectively in the period concerned,

(b) the gender, professional qualifications and experience of the persons referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection in relation to each such vacancy,

(c) the gender, professional qualifications and experience of persons appointed to a judicial office in the period concerned,

(d) the procedures of the Board for examining applications for appointment to a judicial office,

(e) the criteria used by the Board to select the persons it recommended to the Minister under section 16 of this Act.

(5) A report under this section shall not include information that discloses, or is likely to disclose, the identity of any person who was considered by the Board in relation to an appointment to a judicial office and was not appointed to such an office.”.

12. —The Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act, 1961 , is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 6:

“6A.—(1) Where a judicial office within the meaning of section 6 of this Act is vacated by a person in accordance with subsection (3) of that section, the person shall complete the hearing of any case or cases that have been partly heard by the person in the Court in which the judicial office is vacated if, at the request of the President of that Court—

(a) in case the person is appointed to the office of Chief Justice, President of the High Court or President of the Circuit Court, he or she considers it appropriate to do so, or

(b) in case the person is appointed to the office of ordinary judge of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice requests the person to do so, or in case the person is appointed to the office of ordinary judge of the High Court or of the Circuit Court, the President of the High Court or the President of the Circuit Court, as may be appropriate, requests the person to do so.

(2) Whenever a judge sits in a Court in pursuance of this section, he or she shall be an additional judge of the Court concerned for all the purposes of that Court.”.