Rift deepens over judiciary pay rates

THE escalating and increasingly bitter rift between the Government and judiciary over pay rates intensified last night as judges were slapped down by Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

The minister made his irritation clear at the posting of a notice on the Courts Service website which criticised the wording of a referendum question on the issue of judges’ pay.

Mr Shatter expressed anger at the memo, which he said was put into the public domain at the taxpayers’ expense and called for it to be removed.

“It was brought to my attention that a memorandum on the issue of judicial pay critical of the Government’s approach to this issue had been placed on the website of the Courts Service, courts.ie.

“I was surprised to learn of its posting on this website which is essentially provided at state expense to facilitate the publication of court judgments and information about the courts and court services. I asked an official in my department to inform the chief executive of the Courts Service that I did not believe this posting to be appropriate.

“I believe that this event, which was not sanctioned by anyone associated with the Government, is most unfortunate and it remains my hope that corrective action will be taken,” he said.

A referendum is to be held in the autumn to seek to give the Government powers to cut judicial pay in line with other civil servants.