The State is to appeal a High Court decision which has thrown the operation of District Courts into chaos. The decision by Mr Justice McCracken on Friday, in which he found that a court clerk had been improperly appointed, resulted in the State's 185 District Court clerks having to be formally reappointed later that day by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue.
The decision led to judges dismissing hundreds of cases yesterday. If the State fails to have it overturned by the Supreme Court, time limits will prevent thousands of prosecutions for mainly road traffic offences from being re-entered.
One high-profile case due to be heard yesterday may have come within days of having to be dropped. A Health and Safety Authority (HSA) prosecution against the owner of the Killiney Court Hotel in Co Dublin, relating to an incident last year in which a woman died in a fire, was dismissed because of the McCracken ruling.
The time limits involved in health and safety cases give the HSA until this Friday to bring the case again.
Another major case, the Environmental Protection Agency's prosecution of the multinational Procter & Gamble, over pollution of a public water supply in Nenagh, was adjourned yesterday until February, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal.
Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, called for emergency legislation to safeguard existing convictions and avert a "collapse" of the courts system. However, a Department of Justice spokesman said that legislation was not necessary.
Mr Justice McCracken had been hearing a case brought by a man charged with road traffic offences who challenged the validity of a summons issued by a District Court clerk in Ballina, Co Mayo. The judge ruled that, since the clerk had not been appointed personally by the Minister for Justice, but by a civil servant, her appointment was not valid.