Former judge critical of pay referendum

THE former Supreme Court judge, Hugh O’Flaherty, has criticised the bringing in of “the heavy artillery” of a referendum on the Constitution to reduce judges’ pay.

He said he is puzzled as to why the matter cannot be dealt with in the ordinary way, by ordinary legislation if need be, and it puzzled him that it could not have been dealt with by way of the levy imposed on other sections of the public service.

Speaking on local radio the former justice, eminent legal scholar and Kerry native said he could not understand why judges were deemed exempt from the original levy that reduced the salaries of those “paid out of the public purse”.