Nine new judges have been nominated by the Government for appointment by the President. They include four to the High Court: Mr Eamon de Valera SC, Mr Michael Peart solicitor, Mr Michael Barry White SC and Ms Mary Finlay SC.
Mr Peart is the first solicitor in the history of the State to be appointed to the High Court. He qualified as a solicitor in 1970 and has worked since with Pearts, solicitors, of Ormond Quay, Dublin.
He was educated in Glenstal Abbey, UCD and the Law Society, and is a member of the Council of the Law Society. He pleaded in the Supreme Court in the Bula case.
Welcoming the nomination of Mr Peart, the president of the Law Society, Ms Elma Lynch, said: "This is something for which the Law Society has campaigned for decades. Approximately 80 per cent of practising lawyers in Ireland are solicitors and 20 per cent are barristers. It is clearly in the public interest that the judiciary be drawn from the widest pool of suitably qualified legal talent."
Ms Patricia Ryan, a barrister, has been nominated as a judge of the Circuit Court. The new judges of the District Court will be Mr Geoffrey Browne, Mr Cormac Dunne, Mr Bryan Smyth, all solicitors, and barrister Ms Anne Watkin.
Mr de Valera, who is being appointed as a High Court judge, is a senior counsel and not, as was reported in yesterday's Irish Times, a solicitor. Mr Eamon de Valera, a solicitor with McCann Fitzgerald, is his son. The new High Court judge was educated at UCD and the Kings Inns. He was called to the Bar in 1970 and the inner Bar in 1986.
Ms Finlay was also educated at UCD and the Kings Inns, but also studied with the Law Society, qualifying as a solicitor, and the College of Europe in Bruges.
Mr White was also educated at UCD and the Kings Inns. He was called to the Bar in 1967 and the inner Bar in 1982.