The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has paid tribute to the humanity, integrity, intelligence and courage of the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Ronan Keane, who is about to retire.
At the official reopening of Ennis courthouse yesterday, Mr McDowell said the Irish people and Government were deeply indebted for all the work that the Chief Justice had done.
Mr Justice Keane was attending his final official engagement before retiring on Tuesday when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 72.
Paying tribute in the district courtroom of the 19th-century refurbished courthouse, Mr McDowell said Mr Justice Keane had displayed humanity, integrity, intelligence and courage in carrying out his duties.
"You have served this country exceptionally well," the Minister said.
Mr Justice Keane said: "I find that there is a poetic symmetry serving my last official public engagement as Chief Justice in Clare as this is where my forebears are from."
He said the Ennis courthouse - which cost €9 million to renovate - was a building of national importance.
"These court buildings are for the people of Ireland and not just for lawyers and judges. It is right that there is a proper working environment for people using the courts."
The Chief Justice said people did not happily or voluntarily use the courts, remarking that people often found themselves in the grip of the legal process after becoming victims of society failing to function.
He said that the "glories of the Ennis courthouse have been recreated with loving care".
Mr Justice Paul Carney, Judge Carroll Moran and Judge Joseph Mangan were also in attendance.
Mr Justice Keane was educated in Blackrock College, UCD and the King's Inns and was called to the Bar in 1954.
As a junior counsel, he specialised in the law of local government, planning and the environment. He is the author of a number of major legal textbooks, covering local government, company law, planning and the law on equities and trusts. He became a senior counsel in 1970 and was appointed to the High Court in 1979. He was president of the Law Reform Commission from 1987 to 1992 and was promoted to the Supreme Court in 1996. He became Chief Justice in January 2000.
Outside of the Supreme Court, he was involved on behalf of the Council of Europe in seminars and discussions on setting up an independent court system in the new democracies of eastern Europe.
Three years ago, Mr Justice Keane, having chaired a judicial committee on judicial conduct and ethics, presented a plan to the Government to set up a judicial council which would, among other things, deal with complaints against judges and adjudicate on matters of conduct and ethics.
Under these proposals the council could reprimand a judge privately or publicly or could present a request to the Oireachtas seeking his removal in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
That proposal was never acted upon.