Judges association call for action on two-tier public pay system

The Association of Judges of Ireland has suggested to Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin that newly appointed judges are the subject of "invidious discrimination" due to their pay and conditions.

Judges appointed after January 2012 receive significantly lower remuneration than those in place before that date.

Mr Howlin has told the country’s judges that a new method for determining pay and conditions for officeholders and higher-paid public servants will be adopted by the Government. In a letter to the association he said this would “allow an appropriate route to raise the wider issue of judicial remuneration”.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show the judges pressed for the two-tier system of judicial pay to be ended.

In a letter sent to the Minister last December, the president of the association, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the Haddington Road deal on public service pay and conditions – negotiated with trade unions – and the 2013 financial emergency legislation contained mechanisms to unify the two different pay scales for some staff.

He said “to date, no similar provision has been made in respect of recent appointees to the judiciary”.

“That recently appointed judges are being treated less favourably than other entrants to the public service is invidious. Accordingly, the association would urge you to address the position of newly-appointed judges as a matter of urgency.”

Justification

“Alternatively, if the view of the Government is that there is some objective justification for treating new entrants to the judiciary less favourably than new entrants to other areas of the public service and that this does not therefore amount to invidious discrimination, then I would ask you to set out in some detail why that view is taken.”

In early February, Mr Birmingham wrote again to Mr Howlin seeking his observations on the issue.

On April 15th, Mr Howlin wrote to Mr Birmingham and said the provisions for two separate rates of pay for members of the judiciary were contained in earlier financial emergency legislation put in place in 2011.

He suggested the Haddington Road agreement had sought to address an imbalance that had occurred in the public and civil service mainly in relation to lower-paid staff.

“The question of extending the [Haddington Road] measures to the judiciary was not considered at the time, notwithstanding that, I want to reaffirm the intention of Government to treat the judiciary in a similar manner to public servants generally.

“As I previously indicated, in the future a new method of determining remuneration, and any other changes in conditions of service, for office-holders and other higher-paid public servants will be adopted by the Government which will allow an appropriate route to raise the wider issue of judicial remuneration.”