The Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has offered an olive branch to judges, by agreeing to let the heads of more courts have a seat on a new body to pick the judiciary.

The Government is to press ahead with controversial reforms of the judicial appointments system despite an unprecedented warning from the country’s top judges that the move will have “serious implications for the administration of justice”.

The Government is set to finally approve legislation which will radically overhaul the manner in which judges are appointed.

Virtually nothing has been done to modernise the judiciary and open up the legal profession to people from different backgrounds, it was claimed today.

Ulster Unionist Party MP Sylvia Hermon has said there is nothing to stop a woman from becoming Northern Ireland's first female Lord Chief Justice in the foreseeable future.

Brian Kerr is preparing to take on the mantle of Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland in the morning.

Sir Brian Kerr was today appointed as Northern Ireland’s next Lord Chief Justice.

THE revelation of a £20,000 tax settlement by the judge chairing the Planning Tribunal last night is an embarrassment for the Government, which will face questions about the extent of its own knowledge of his tax problems.

THIS morning’s revelations that Judge Alan Mahon made a £20,000 tax settlement with the Revenue Commissioners over 10 years ago will be acutely embarrassing for the new chairman of the Mahon Tribunal.