More solicitors than barristers are now applying for appointment to the bench.
However, the majority of those appointed continue to be barristers, according to the annual report of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.
For the first time, solicitor applicants for a place on the Circuit Court exceeded barristers. Fifty-two solicitors applied in 2004, 27 junior counsel and 14 senior counsel. Five vacancies arose during the year, and they were filled by one solicitor, three senior and one junior counsel.
Solicitors have only been able to apply to be members of the Circuit and higher courts in the past few years.
Almost nine out of 10 applicants for places on the District Court came from solicitors in 2004. Only one in four of the applicants was female. One solicitor and one barrister were appointed to the two vacancies.
Barristers dominate applicants for the High and Supreme Courts. Of the 19 applicants for appointment to the High Court, 11 were senior counsel, three were junior counsel and five were solicitors. There was only one woman.
Three senior counsel were appointed, while a former senior counsel, Judge Elizabeth Dunne, was elevated from the Circuit Court to the High Court.
One solicitor and one senior counsel, both male, applied to the Supreme Court. In the event, the Government appointed a judge of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns.
Overall, a third of those appointed to the bench in 2004 were women. Over half, 55.56 per cent, were senior counsel, while the remainder were evenly divided among barristers and solicitors.
The figures confirm a fall in applications for appointment to the Circuit and District Courts to about a third of what they were. This illustrates the fact that there is now more money to be made in private practice as a lawyer than as a public servant on the bench.