MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter has defended two recent judicial appointments insisting they were based on merit alone and any suggestion otherwise was “grossly unfair”.
The Government announced on Tuesday that it was nominating Circuit Judge Michael White and Senior Counsel Kevin Cross for appointment to the High Court by the President.
Judge White, a former solicitor and Dáil candidate for the Workers Party, the majority of which later became Democratic Left and then merged with the Labour Party, has served as a Circuit Court judge since 1996. He presided over the “Annabel’s” case, in which four young men were charged with the killing of Brian Murphy outside a disco. He has also chaired the Courts Service committee on family law.
Mr Cross qualified as a barrister in 1975 and became a senior counsel in 1997. He is married to Circuit Court judge Alison Lindsay. He donated €1,200 in 2010 to the election campaign of Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton.
Mr Shatter issued a statement on the appointments following a report of the men’s party political links in the Irish Independent yesterday. He said it was “of the utmost importance that there be no doubt as to both the independence and integrity of our judiciary or of those appointed to judicial office”.
The statement said Judge White was being “appointed by the Government to the High Court, as have other Circuit Court judges in the past, because of his competence and excellence as a circuit judge who has carried out his constitutional and statutory duties in a manner beyond reproach.”
The statement said Mr Cross was being appointed to the High Court in compliance with a recommendation made by the Judicial Advisory Appointments Board. “He is a senior counsel of substantial experience with impeccable credentials”.
“Any suggestion that either appointment is based on anything other than merit or has any base or hidden motive is completely untrue and grossly unfair to those appointed,” he said.
Mr Shatter stressed the importance of upholding the independence and integrity of the judiciary and claimed that such coverage could discourage well-qualified and competent individuals from seeking appointment to important positions by the State.
Those seeking appointment as judges apply to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, chaired by the Chief Justice and made up of the presidents of the High, Circuit and District courts, a representative each of the Law Society and Bar Council, the Attorney General and three nominees of the Minister for Justice. It does not conduct interviews, but examines the applications and forwards a list of suitably qualified candidates to the Government.