Sir, - Students of the Constitution must be very confused about the removal of judges from office. The debate surrounding the recent resignations suggests that nobody will attempt to interpret the term "stated misbehaviour" and in Article 35.4 no member of either house of the Oireachtas will touch a resolution calling for the removal of a judge. The conclusion is that, effectively, a judge could lose office only as a result of any of the following factors:
(a) peer pressure - potentially very sinister;
(b) media pressure - power without responsibility;
(c) an invitation from the Government to "resign or else" - a dangerous dilution of the separation of powers.
The question, therefore, is: how do we reconcile the current precarious situation with the constitutional guarantee that judges shall be independent in the exercise of their judicial functions and removable only by resolution of both Houses? Surely this is one more example of constitutional checks and balances which may be theoretically valid but are seriously defective (or ignored) in practice. Will we now proceed to deal with the anomalies or take the traditional route of muddling through? - Yours, etc., T. O'Connor,
Churchtown, Dublin 14.