Sir, – It has been widely reported that the Government proposes to hold a referendum to allow them to reduce judges’ pay during their term in office. If opinion polls are to be believed, this amendment to Article 35 will be easily carried.
The Judicial Council Bill 2010 provides for “a means of investigating allegations of judicial misconduct and to provide options for dealing with misconduct where the nature of the misconduct warrants investigation and action but is not sufficiently serious to call for the removal of the judge from office”. This proposed Bill is long overdue, having been first proposed by then chief justice Ronan Keane in 2000 in the Keane Report. That report advised that a constitutional amendment would be required to give effect to the proposals of the report. Would the Minister for Justice give consideration to bring forward this constitutional referendum to coincide with the judicial pay referendum? Would it not be appropriate to have these two referendums held together?
While the public understandably would like to see judges sharing the cuts in pay that other public servants have experienced, there is a strong argument that an independent body should set judicial pay, taking into account pay and conditions of similar common law jurisdictions. Separation of powers with an independent judiciary is essential.
Finally, to remove completely all political influence in the appointment of judges by government, the recommendation of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board (or a similar body) on who should be appointed as judges should be binding on the government except in exceptional circumstances, because at present its recommendations can be ignored completely. – Yours, etc,