Mr Justice Declan Costello will retire as President of the High Court at the end of the year. There was widespread speculation in legal circles yesterday that he will be succeeded by Mr Justice Frederick Morris. Mr Justice Costello could have continued in office until August but decided to retire early, according to an announcement.
In a lengthy career in politics and the law, he established the Law Reform Commission and the office of Director of Public Prosecutions.
He is a former attorney general and was the principal author of Fine Gael's Just Society document in the mid-1960s. In it he proposed a new social dimension to Fine Gael including consideration of measures to achieve economic planning, some control over industry commerce and health, social welfare and education.
His views were said to have influenced both Fianna Fail and the Labour Party. He became a High Court judge in 1977.
His most controversial judgment was in the "X" case in February 1992 when he granted an order to the then attorney general, Mr Harry Whelehan, preventing a 14-year-old from travelling to Britain for an abortion.
He became President of the High Court in January 1995. He had effectively been acting President of the High Court for more than two years at the time due to Mr Justice Hamilton's absence while chairing the beef tribunal and the hiatus caused by the resignation of Mr Whelehan.
Mr Whelehan had been President for two days at the height of the controversy about delays in processing an extradition request concerning the paedophile, Father Brendan Smyth.