Government nominates new High Court judge

The Government has nominated barrister Isobel Kennedy for appointment as a High Court judge.

Ms Kennedy, a senior counsel since 2003, is a criminal law specialist who has also practiced in judicial review and constitutional law. She will fill the vacancy left by the promotion of Mr Justice John Edwards to the Court of Appeal.

Ms Kennedy was called to the Bar in 1988. She was a member of the Bar Council, which represents barristers, from 1995 to 1997, and sat on the Barristers’ Professional Conduct Tribunal for five years.

Her appointment is the final move in a sequence of judicial appointments prompted by the establishment late last year of the Court of Appeal, which sits between the High Court and the Supreme Court.

Promotions to the new Court of Appeal left about a quarter of positions on the High Court vacant, so a flurry of nominations last November resulted in the appointment of eight new High Court judges.

They were Circuit Court judges Carroll Moran, Mary Faherty, Tony Hunt, Ray Fullam and Carmel Stewart, solicitors Donald Binchy and Robert Eager and barrister Robert Haughton SC.

The salary for High Court judges appointed since January 2012 is €172,710.

The Government said Ms Kennedy's nomination followed the receipt of a list of suitable candidates from the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.