Voters must make their ruling on judges’ pay in referendum

ONE of the most condescending putdowns I ever heard made by a lawyer about a colleague who had been appointed to the position of judge was that he “was the first to get a pay rise on the promotion”.

It has been widely believed that most barristers and solicitors who have accepted a position “on the bench” in the past suffered a drop in income in doing so. This is saying something given the pay scale for judges, prior to the recent announcement of reductions for new appointees and the intention to dramatically reduce salaries for existing judges, if a constitutional amendment permitting these is presented to the people this autumn and approved.

The salary of a judge of the Supreme Court is €257,872 at present, with the chief justice John Murray getting €295,916. A judge of the High Court gets €243,080, with its president getting €274,779. The president of the Circuit Court earns €249,418 while each of the 37 judges appointed to the Circuit Court receives €177,554 in pay annually. The 63 judges of the District Court, lowest in the pecking order, still get €147,961 annually, with the president paid €183,894.