JUDGES HAVE established an association to represent them for the first time in the State’s history.
A decision to set up the association was taken at the national conference of the judiciary held last month.
The conference also decided to establish an interim judicial council, pending the formation of a statutory council when the enabling legislation is passed next year.
The new association is voluntary, but it is understood that the majority of judges have joined. It has an executive committee of two judges from each jurisdiction – District, Circuit, High and Supreme – and its chairman is Mr Justice Peter Kelly of the High Court, who was unanimously elected unopposed.
The association wrote to the Government earlier this week to inform it of its existence and intention to speak on behalf of the judiciary on matters of concern relating to pay and conditions.
This follows a year of public discussion and debate concerning judicial salaries and conditions, culminating in the passage of a constitutional amendment on October 27th permitting the reduction in their pay.
This was necessitated by legal opinion to the Government that it would be unconstitutional to reduce the pay of judges when that of other public servants was being cut.
Another matter of concern to senior members of the judiciary was the taxation of their notional pension pot when they reach retirement age.
It is understood the mechanism for this tax on large pension pots was such that those who had paid into private pension schemes and who would also be eligible for a judicial pension would face tax bills running into six figures on retirement.
There was considerable frustration among members of the judiciary that no organisation existed that could articulate their concerns to the Government or to the public.
They also felt that the Government would have benefited from having a representative body to deal with.
It is not clear how the association will relate to the new judicial council.
The heads of the Judicial Council Bill – published by former minister for justice Dermot Ahern last year and which fell with the previous government – contained provisions for the judicial council to have a representative function.
However, it is not known whether this Bill will be proposed unchanged by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.
If it contains provisions for the judicial council to represent the judiciary as well as deal with matters of standards and ethics, complaints and education, it is likely that the judges’ association will fade away.
However, if it does not it could have a role to play in mediating between the two organs of government, the judiciary and the executive, for some time to come.