Are judges worth it? You will get to decide

CUTS to judges’ pay are long overdue.

This is not an argument about their qualifications, expertise, workload or amount of money they could get in the private sector.

It is simply about fairness.

Judges are public servants. And every other sector of the public service has taken a pay cut and been hit with the public service levy since the financial crisis struck in 2008.

The lowest-paid public servants were not spared. But judges were.

This is because of Article 35.5 of the Constitution, which states: “The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office.”

This article was designed to protect the independence of the judiciary and prevent a situation whereby a government could cut a judge’s pay in retaliation for a judgement it did not like.

But in recent years, the article has inoculated judges against the kind of sacrifice that the state has been demanding of every other citizen, whether public servant or private-sector worker.

This is on top of a situation whereby Irish judges do well by international standards.

As pointed out here before, the Chief Justice of the Irish Supreme Court, John Murray, is paid €295,916 a year. This compares favourably with the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, who is paid $223,500 (€155,000).

The other justices on the Supreme Court here are paid €257,872 a year. This compares with $213,900 — or €148,000 — for their counterparts in the US.

Apples and oranges, the judges might say.

But they have not helped themselves.

When the previous government introduced the public-service pension levy in February 2009, it exempted judges on the basis — again — of Article 35.5.

Amid mounting public anger, the judiciary agreed a voluntary scheme with the Revenue whereby individual members could pay the pension levy if they so wished.

Progress was slow. By the end of September that year, almost six months after the voluntary scheme had been put in place, just half of the country’s judges had signed up to it.

The most recent figures available from Revenue cover 2010, and show that the clear majority of judges are now on board.

Last year, 126 judges made voluntary payments under the scheme, totalling €1.25 million.

But there are 147 judges, which suggests that 21 — or one in seven — did not pay into the scheme last year.

When Justice Minister Alan Shatter spoke to the press yesterday about the Government’s decision to hold a referendum on judicial pay in tandem with the presidential election — which will likely take place in late October or early November — he said he had the greatest faith in the judiciary’s “patriotism” and their “understanding of the financial difficulties confronted by the state”.

The fact that one-in-seven judges do not appear to be volunteering the pension levy would suggest their understanding is not that great.

Now the public will get the chance to deliver their verdict.