Judicial control mechanism needed, says Howlin

RADICAL judicial reform is required to deal with situations such as the one that arose with the Judge Brian Curtin case, Labour’s new spokesman on justice has said.

Wexford TD Brendan Howlin, who took over the shadow justice role 10 days ago, said he would make judicial reform one of his two key priorities.

Mr Howlin said judicial training and dialogue between judges was done on an informal and ad hoc basis, a situation he described as unsatisfactory.

“At the moment, there’s no way a judge can even admonish another even if somebody goes off the reservation, as it were,” he said.

Mr Howlin pointed to the absence of mandatory or in-house training for judges and the lack of formalised structures for standards, or to deal with controversies.

He said his proposals would make sure structures and implementation would be judiciary-led.

“I support robust separation of powers. The strength of our judicial system is that it’s not subject to political control. But the reality is we need a judicial control mechanism. We need to look at appropriate structures and models elsewhere and see how best they can be applied in Ireland,” he said.

This is Mr Howlin’s second stint as justice spokes-man, having filled that role between 1997-2002. He and Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins were instrumental in raising the issue in the Dáil of misbehaviour among gardaí in Donegal.

“I called for a Garda Authority and I published legislation to replicate the Northern Ireland police ombudsman,” he said.

He also argues for a restructuring of the gardaí to deal with gang crime.

“The sophistication and brutality of criminal gangs is frightening. They are running amok. We need to refocus,” he said.

Among the solutions suggested by him is “a community policing model that’s visible on the ground”.

He was also critical of Justice Minister Michael McDowell. “We have not had the change we needed from somebody of his calibre. (Last week’s) crime figures are another shock to the system,” he said.