The Association of Judges in Ireland (AJI) had feared that the restoration of salary for public servants which took place earlier this year would be delayed for them because it required a special government order.

They were concerned any postponement would mean that when it was finally introduced, the payments might be misinterpreted as a “special increase” by members of the public.

In a letter to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, AJI president George Birmingham wrote “it is the case that there are members of the judiciary who are struggling to get by and can ill afford to wait”.

“Moreover, because the restoration will not take place on the due date and on the same date as all the other public servants that are benefitting there is a real risk that when the restoration eventually takes place that it will be misreported in the media as representing some sort of special increase for judges.”

The AJI’s fears were dealt with when Mr Donohoe was able to instruct his staff to put the payments through on April 1 when they were due to all public servants.

The minister told the judges that the government order was being finalised and would be made law as quickly as possible to “give full legislative effect to these arrangements”.

Pay for judges had been cut dramatically during the financial crisis with starting wages reduced by between 24% and 30%. Prior to 2012, the Chief Justice for example, received pay of €227,168, but this was reduced to €204,657 for new appointees to the bench.

At the other end of the scale, district court judges had a salary of €123,881, which for new entrants was lowered to €111,698.

Unlike other civil servants these judicial pay cuts had required a referendum, which was passed in 2011 by a vote of 79.74% to 20.26%.

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