Shane Ross amps up judge appointments row

As public spats go, they don’t get more sensitive and tense than when they involve members of the judiciary and government figures.

The latest internal Government disagreement over how judges are appointed has caught the highest judge in the land in the crossfire.

Transport Minister Shane Ross intensified the row over judicial appointments yesterday, again criticising the judiciary. This came after a staunch defence over the weekend by Chief Justice Susan Denham.

She refuted claims judges themselves are holding up reforms. She went further and said “inaccurate discussion and misrepresentation of the position of the judiciary” had occurred.

Ms Justice Denham specifically raised that thorny issue of the separation of powers, saying “it is a fundamental principle, that each of the great organs of State owes respect to the other”.

Mr Ross yesterday accepted that this criticism was directed at him. He had stepped up his criticism of judges last week, making fresh calls for a declaration of interests for members who “might forget their oath”.

Shane Ross

The next day, Taoiseach Enda Kenny publicly distanced himself from the remarks.

Mr Ross, though, is not one for turning. He dug his heels in even more on RTÉ radio yesterday, despite the public admonition from the chief justice.

The “mystique” surrounding judges needed to be broken down he said. Members were loath to declare their financial interests, he added.

We have been here before, with public rows with the judiciary and the legal profession. The row between judges and former justice minister Alan Shatter comes to mind, where he stood his ground and eventually drove through reforms on pay for judges.

The last Fine Gael-led administration, though, caved into lobbying over reforming the legal sector in general, despite demands by the EU to lower costs for consumers.

Government sources believe there is little Fine Gael support for Mr Ross’s demand to overhaul the appointments of judges. Sources question how a judge can be decided on the merits of an interview or CV alone, especially by a lay majority board that may not be familiar with an applicant’s work, their standing in the legal sector or their case experience.

“It is like ordinary members of the public deciding on an editor for the media. Would they be familiar with that person’s experience?” one legal source also said.

The Taoiseach’s decision yesterday to publicly say he respected the chief justice’s position shows his more public support for the judiciary too, rather than Mr Ross. More Cabinet members are likely to get dragged into this row. For the moment, the Fine Gael side of Government wants to take the heat and criticism out of it.

Mr Ross’s demands are seen as reasonable by some Government figures. However, they also say he is doing himself no favours by attacking the judiciary every second day on radio.

What is more worrying is that the State’s top judge, Ms Justice Denham, has been forced to intervene to defend her colleagues and the integrity of the bench in general and has, as a result, been caught in the crossfire.

It is time for the Taoiseach to take control and indicate clearly whether or not he agrees with Mr Ross’s calls for reforms.