Flood slams delay in appointing judges

Chairman of the Flood Tribunal Justice Fergus Flood has written a letter to the clerk of the Dáil to complain about the Government’s delay in appointing two new judges to the tribunal team.

Justice Flood requested the extra members nine months ago to help deal with the tribunal’s growing workload.

The Government has agreed to the request, but it has still not introduced the legislation necessary for the appointments to take effect.

In his letter of complaint, Justice Flood said any further delay would adversely affect the tribunal’s ability to progress to its next public phase.

The opposition has maintained that the delay is a deliberate ploy by the Government to ensure that controversial evidence, particularly that of property developer Tom Gilmartin, is not heard before the general election.

The Labour Party reiterated this assertion last night, with Brendan Howlin accusing the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice of conspiring to prevent the appointment of any extra judges.