Conflict between Minister and judiciary

Sir, – Brendan Cafferty (April 17th) argues that the pay and conditions of the Irish judiciary should be benchmarked against their European counterparts.

Mr Cafferty might be interested to know that Ireland has the lowest number of judges per capita of any European country (Report of the Working Group on a Court of Appeal, 2009).

It seems our own judges are already outperform their counterparts in terms of efficiency. Something the Government might note in its crusade for efficiency increases in the public sector. – Yours, etc,

COLM KELLY,

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Alexander Reid,

Navan, Co Meath.

Sir, – Your predecessor Conor Brady (Opinion, April 17th) presents an excellent summary and analysis of the current conflict between the executive and judiciary. I agree with his contention that the judiciary’s case is more a sense of demoralisation than a diminution of their independence and he states correctly that this sense of demoralisation is not unique to judges but is reflected at all higher echelons of public service.

At times of national difficulty and retrenchment I believe it behoves the Minister for Justice to acknowledge this sense of demoralisation of high office holders and act in a less zealous manner and with clearer communication. – Yours, etc,

Dr JONATHON ROTH,

Clancys Strand,

Limerick.

Sir, – Apart from the flawed system of judicial appointments, under which the incumbents were installed, I see that the elite of our impoverished legal profession are protesting that their issue with Government is over the perceived threat to the independence of the judiciary, rather than their own rather meagre salary and pension levels. But there again, they would say that, wouldn’t they? – Yours, etc,

JG EVANS,

St Margaret’s Park,

Malahide, Co Dublin.