Ahern withdraws judiciary referendum

The proposed referendum on judicial accountability, the subject of heated debate in the Dáil in the past few days, has been withdrawn by the Taoiseach.

The referendum was scheduled to be held on June 7th and was designed to amend measures in place to deal with members of the judiciary accused of misconduct. Fourteen amendments to the Twenty-Second Amendment of the Constitution Bill were proposed.

We believe that it would be inappropriate to put a proposal before the people on the 7th of June The Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern

But the Government was angrily criticised by Opposition parties in the Dáil, who accused the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O’Donoghue, of "rushing" the issue.

The Government said this morning the proposal was being withdrawn due to pressure from the Opposition, and that the Taoiseach and Mr O'Donoghue would be reviewing the amendment.

"The Government has had to decide on what is the appropriate course of action," Mr Ahern told the Dáil.

"The outcome of this consideration is that we believe that it would be inappropriate to put a proposal before the people on the 7th of June in these circumstances.

"The Government considers that a fundamental proposal touching on the separation of powers between the respective organs of government in the state should not be proceeded in a situation in which there is such fundamental disagreement."

Fine Gael and Labour threatened to walk out of the Dáil yesterday over what they said was insufficient time to consider last-minute amendments.

The main amendment concerned the reduction from 30 to 20 the number of members of either the Oireachtas or Seanad needed to sign a motion initiating impeachment proceedings, and that a simple majority rather than a two-thirds majority, as originally proposed, would be necessary.

Last night Mr Ahern accused the opposition of playing political football and questioned whether they were serious about bringing the amendment forward.