The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, has accepted that the judicial reforms he is calling for have been sought by the judiciary for years.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Ross appeared to directly contradict views he has expressed elsewhere as to the judiciary’s attitude to a judicial council and changes to the judicial appointments system.

The judiciary has argued that for about two decades it has been seeking a judicial council, which would, among other matters, facilitate communication with the other branches of Government, provide for continuing judicial education and establish a complaints procedure.

It has also argued that it has been seeking a new judicial appointments system, so as to reduce the scope for political interference, for five years.

When this was put to Mr Ross, he agreed, saying the Chief Justice, Susan Denham, has been pushing for a judicial council “for a very long time. It is Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour who have been resisting.”

‘Embarrassed’

He said he believed the Chief Justice was also “embarrassed by the judicial appointments system”. The only danger, he said, was that a system of political patronage would be replaced by one controlled by “a cabal of lawyers”.

Mr Ross was speaking before the release by the Courts Service of comments by the Chief Justice where she pointed out that the judiciary had been advocating change for years and that its position was being misrepresented.

In yesterday’s edition of the Sunday Business Post, Mr Ross was reported as saying that resistance from the judiciary was why there had been no changes to the judicial appointments and disciplinary systems for the past two decades.

“To me, it is very important that the judges, who are masters of delay, are not allowed to procrastinate on this and put it off. We’ve been waiting 20 years for judicial reform and it’s been put off time and time again, in a very clever way.”

Register of interests

Early last week Mr Ross raised, for the first time, the idea that a public register of interests should be introduced for judges as part of the Judicial Council Bill. “I don’t think it will delay the Bill,” he told The Irish Times.

“It would take 20 minutes to do, if we agree on it.”

The Bill is close to completion and will be published without a reference to a register of interests. However, the inclusion of a register of interests could be considered as the Bill goes through the Oireachtas, according to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald.

“We need to examine a range of issues that arise.”

A judicial appointments Bill is likely to be published early next year. A Private Members’ Bill on the same issue, published by the Fianna Fáil spokesman on justice Jim O’Callaghan, goes to committee stage on Wednesday week.

The key difference between Mr O’Callaghan’s Bill and the one expected from the Government concerns whether the commission to be established should have a “lay majority” and lay chair, as in the programme for government, or have a majority of judges and people from the legal profession, as proposed by Mr O’Callaghan, and be chaired by the Chief Justice.

Which Bill is eventually made law may be decided by the views taken by the non-Fianna Fáil members of the Opposition on the issue of whether the commission should have a “lay” majority or not.