Most of the senior judges in the State boycotted a Christmas drinks reception given last night by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in protest at his remarks about their failure to implement the law on bail and mandatory sentences for drug dealing.
The traditional reception given at the King's Inns by the Minister for the staff of his department, senior gardaí and agencies under his remit and the courts was notable for the absence of the judiciary.
While the judges refused to comment on the matter last night, it is understood that the boycott followed contacts between members of the judiciary who were angered at Mr McDowell's intervention.
One of very few senior judges who did attend the reception was Mr Justice Declan Budd of the High Court, but the vast majority of the more than 40 judges of the Supreme Court and High Court did not attend as a mark of their anger at the Minister's comments.
Earlier yesterday Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman of the Supreme Court made reference in a judgment to what he termed "strident and repeated public comments" made in recent weeks on the subject of mandatory sentences for drugs offences.
He said these comments had been given "wide and excited" coverage in the media but that the court paid the comments in question no attention whatever.
He said the duty of judges was to decide individual cases impartially in accordance with the Constitution and the laws, without regard to expressions of opinion from any source other than the Director of Public Prosecutions and the person on whom the sentence was imposed.
Mr Justice Hardiman added that the mandatory sentencing laws were a drastic alteration of the principles of sentencing as they formerly applied, and the right of appeal against undue leniency or undue severity was an essential safeguard.
In response to the spate of gun murders in recent weeks Mr McDowell has made a number of public calls for a change of attitude among the judiciary, to ensure that legislation on bail and serious drug offences is implemented, in keeping with the purpose for which it was introduced.
He spoke about the matter on the last day of the Dáil session before the Christmas recess.
Asked about the fact that only 20 per cent of people convicted under section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act were being sentenced to the mandatory 10-year jail term, Mr McDowell appealed to the judiciary to implement the legislation as it was intended. He said the law provided for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for "wholesale drug dealing" and that reflected the legislature's view that it was as serious an offence as murder.
Describing such major drug dealing as "a heinous crime which is causing massive damage to the Irish way of life and Irish society", he said the legislature envisaged that the mandatory minimum 10-year sentence would be imposed in all cases, save for exceptional instances.
"In my view, it is only in exceptional and specific cases that the judiciary are mandated to deviate from a 10-year sentence . . . some misinterpretation of that section is taking place at judicial level. I can say that respectfully because I do respect the judiciary . . . I am appealing to them collectively because the people of Ireland are entitled to look to the judiciary to implement the law," he said.
On bail he said that the judges were independent and he did not want to get into judge-bashing, "but the simple fact is if 23 out of 24 people are admitted to bail despite Garda opposition in very serious cases, something is going wrong".
"It maybe is going wrong on our side of the fence, it may be that the judicial policy is wrong on these matters, but whatever the cause of the problem it is quite clear that the referendum in 1996 and the 1997 Bail Act [ are] not effectively being operated," he added.
Mr McDowell said there was a need for more consistency among judges on the issue.