Sir, – One wonders if the proposed referendum (not yet worded) is the best way to effect a reduction in judicial earnings.
It has long been generally accepted in democracies that enforced reduction in judicial earnings may be regarded as a challenge to the independence of the judiciary which is presumably why the safeguard was enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann in 1937 in the first place. Fascism reached its peak throughout Europe during that decade.
One reads that 85 per cent (about six out of every seven) of the judiciary have for some considerable time voluntarily and anonymously accepted a considerable reduction in pay in line with senior public servants who were compelled to accept such reductions and also in common recognition of the perilous state of the nation’s finances. If passed, the proposed referendum apparently will force this figure up to 100 per cent.
It is axiomatic that reckless lending policies of excessively paid/rewarded senior bankers (now effectively employed/paid by the State) walked the country into the fiscal quagmire in which it now finds itself. How many such senior bankers have voluntarily agreed to a reduction in salaries and pension “entitlements”?
If 85 per cent is not considered enough, could a period of time not be allowed in which to increase this percentage figure to as near 100 per cent as possible and on a voluntary basis so that the proposed referendum might not be considered necessary? It would be surprising if the gap could not now be narrowed.
Unless I am missing something, is this not in fact what the proposed referendum is all about? – Yours, etc,
7.
Sir, – I have heard that exports, the knowledge economy and even the Irish rugby team are essential bedrocks for the Irish economic recovery. The latest theory being propounded by the Irish judiciary is that confidence in our legal system, which necessarily depends on the independence, real or perceived, of the judiciary from the Oireachtas, is an essential bedrock of our economic recovery.
The paramount ingredient of this independence seems to be the inability of the Oireachtas to cut judges’ wages across the board in line with the rest of the public sector. This crucial independence remains unaffected by the fact that judges are appointed by the government of the day or that their wages are set and can be increased to astronomical heights by those same politicians who appointed them. ’Tis a funny thing, independence. No wonder it causes so much trouble! – Yours, etc,