Judicial appointments are recommended by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board (JAAB) which was set up five years ago to ensure transparency. However, its main effect has been to mute political lobbying, rather than end it.
As its title suggests, it is an advisory board, and does no more than prepare a list of suitable candidates. The government is not obliged to appoint from the list though to date it has always done so.
The board consists of the Chief Justice, the Presidents of the High, Circuit and District courts, the Attorney General and nominees of the Law Society and the Bar Council. Normally these are the president and chairman respectively, but at the moment the Bar Council is represented by the chairman of its procedures and practice committee, Mr Denis McCullough, and the Law Society is represented by its former president, Mr Pat O'Connor.
The board also contains three lay people: Mr John Coyle of Galway, Mr Tadhg O'Donoghue of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ms Olive Braiden of the Rape Crisis Centre.
Under the legislation, the board draws up a shortlist of seven people per vacancy, or any other number specified by the Minister for Justice. The list is based on applications; the application form is quite detailed. It asks candidates about their legal background, their experience in other relevant areas and in voluntary work. The JAAB has no function in the appointment of the Chief Justice or the President of the High Court, Circuit Court or District Court. Serving judges must first be considered for these positions, and the procedures of the board do not apply when a serving judge is appointed.
Candidates for judicial office are not interviewed - the list is drawn up entirely on the basis of the application form. It is understood some members of the JAAB would prefer if some form of interview was allowed.
According to one source, there are numerous candidates for any district judge vacancies that occur. "There might be 50 applicants and 40 would be suitable. It is quite difficult to select seven," said the source. However, in the first draft of the legislation, the specified number was three, but this was altered by the then minister, Mrs Nora Owen.
The legislation requires the minister to consider first the names provided by the board, but not to appoint one of them. The decision still rests with the Government, which may or may not choose from the list. However, if it does not do so, it is required to explain why. When the person is placed on the short list, he or she may be considered for any appointment that occurs in which they express an interest. They do not re-submit an application every time a vacancy occurs. Therefore a person can spend many years on the judicial short list until he or she either is appointed or withdraws.
This is the point at which political lobbying comes into play. Once a person's name is on the list, they are technically in the running, as the person has met the requirements for the job. At this stage the applicant's friends may lobby ministers seeking to ensure that when the cabinet decides, it will be their candidate that gets the job.