Reform before recruitment - Do we have enough judges?

WHEN high court judge, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys, opened the Parnell Summer School, in Wicklow, yesterday, he suggested our Constitution should be amended to allow the appointment of more judges, so that cases might be more quickly dealt with.

He pointed out that our courts can call on 163 judges to serve 4.8m people — only 34 judges per million people. This ratio puts Ireland firmly at rock-bottom of the European league table.

Anyone ensnared in litigation will be familiar with the bizarre timescales tolerated in our courts, but, even so, they are unlikely to support Mr Justice Humphreys as emphatically as he might imagine.