Séamus Woulfe to hear first Supreme Court appeal next month

Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe has been listed to hear his first appeal in that court next month.

Mr Justice Woulfe was appointed to the Supreme Court last July but, as a result of the controversy surrounding his attendance at an Oireachtas society golf dinner in August, has yet to hear an appeal.

Because of his role as a former attorney general, some appeals might also involve a conflict for him, which would preclude his hearing them.

According to the latest Supreme Court list, he will sit as a member of a five-judge court, presided over by Chief Justice Frank Clarke, to hear, via remote video conference, his first Supreme Court appeal on May 6th. He is also listed to hear another appeal on May 13th.

Last February, Mr Justice Woulfe began sitting as part of three-judge panels of the Supreme Court to hear “in-chambers” applications for permission to bring appeals to the Supreme Court.

The panels hearing such applications do not sit in public and take place in private via video conference, with the judges working from their homes or chambers.

In March, Mr Justice Woulfe also began sitting as a member of a three-judge Court of Appeal to hear a number of appeals in that court.

In the wake of his appointment, Mr Justice Woulfe became embroiled in the so-called Golfgate controversy.

That led to a review by former chief justice Susan Denham who, in her report of October 1st, 2020, expressed the view it would have been better had the judge not attended the golf dinner but it would be “unjust and disproportionate” to seek his resignation.

However, publication of a transcript of the interview between Ms Denham and Mr Justice Woulfe heightened the controversy and ultimately led to an extraordinary exchange of correspondence between the new judge and Chief Justice Frank Clarke, in which the latter expressed his personal view Mr Justice Woulfe should resign from the court.

Pay offer

Mr Justice Woulfe said he did not believe he should resign but offered that his pay as a Supreme Court judge be given to a charity, for a period of three months, and that he not sit in the court until February last.

He also said, inter alia, he would be willing to sit as a High Court judge during the three-month period to February in order to assist with any shortage of judges and any delays for litigants in certain lists in that court.

Sources say his sitting on the Court of Appeal was in line with that offer and provided some judicial experience in circumstances where he had not previously sat as a judge of any court. Supreme Court judges occasionally, although not regularly, sit as a member of the Court of Appeal.

Since his appointment last July, there have been some changes on the Supreme Court. The Government announced earlier this month that it was nominating Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, currently advocate general of the European Court of Justice, to the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy created by the appointment last year of Ms Justice Mary Irvine as president of the High Court. Mr Justice William McKechnie retired from the Supreme Court earlier this month, and the Chief Justice is due to retire later this year.