A FINE GAEL party colleague has sharply criticised the remarks on the judiciary made in the Dail on Thursday by the Minister of State in the Taoiseach's Department, Mr Gay Mitchell. Our judges should not become the target of members of government for the past failures of successive governments, said Mr Alan Shatter.
The chairman of the Bar Council, Mr James Nugent, described as "populist nonsense Mr Mitchell's suggestion that judges should get out among the people they do not live among".
He said he was aware of many judges who served in a voluntary capacity on hospital and school boards, and it was wrong to bay that they were in some way isolated from the rest of society.
Mr Mitchell told the specially reconvened session of the Dail on Thursday that elected representatives were entitled to say that awe have had enough of their interfering with the legislature and the executive. The tail will have to be wagged a bit, and judges will have to change the way they do their business".
Mr Nugent said yesterday he found it difficult to understand what Mr Mitchell's criticism of the judiciary was based on. Mr Nugent added that the Minister did not appear to have grasped the fact that it was the duty of judges to vindicate the rights of individuals when those rights were wrongfully impinged on by the State.
Mr Shatter said it is the job of the judiciary to apply the law as enacted by the Oireachtas, and to ensure that at all times the Government acts in accordance with the Constitution, and legislation does not violate constitutional rights.
"If members of the judiciary were to be influenced by intemperate comment by Ministers or members of the Oireachtas, their constitutional independence would be seriously undermined, and the State would become a banana republic", according to Mr Shatter.
The new Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said he was disappointed by some of the remarks Mr Mitchell made in relation to the Garda. Mr Mitchell said Garda management should spend more time with their local communities, and less time at thigh society functions". Mr Byrne said he would know which functions he should attend in his capacity as Commissioner.
The deputy general secretary of the Garda Representative Association, Mr PJ Stone, also criticised Mr Mitchell's statement.
He said gardai had the right to express points of view like any other citizen. "If he (Mr Mitchell) wants to silence the guards in order to let the politicians waffle on, that's not democracy," according to Mr Stone.
Mr Chris Finnegan, general secretary of the rival Garda Federation, said. I am at a loss to know what Mr Mitchell is actually talking about."