Government to start process to replace outgoing Chief Justice
Picture: Courts Mr Frank Collins Hon The Clarke, Justice Chief Justice
The Cabinet will on Tuesday approve the process to appoint a new Chief Justice to replace Frank Clarke who is set to retire later this year.
Justice Clarke, as the top judge in the country is paid €256,584, and has been in office since 2017.
His departure, while expected, follows an incredible period of controversy in the country’s highest court which centred on the attendance of Judge Seamus Woulfe at the Oireachtas Golf dinner last August.
The has confirmed that Justice Minister Helen McEntee is to seek approval from her colleagues to establish a bespoke committee which will by October make a recommendation on the process to replace the Chief Justice.
According to sources, the committee will be made up of Attorney General Paul Gallagher, a leading member of the judiciary, and a lay person which will consider all suitable candidates, applications from current members of the judiciary, and will formulate a recommendation.
It is understood that the process to be used will be the same process which was used to appoint Judge Clarke in 2017 and therefore Judge Clarke’s successor will not be appointed under the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board (JAAB) process.
Judge Clarke, born in 1951, was appointed the 12th Chief Justice of Ireland on the 28th July, 2017, by President Michael D. Higgins.
A person shall be qualified for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal or the High Court if the person is for the time being a practising barrister or practising solicitor of not less than 12 years standing who has practised as a barrister or a solicitor for a continuous period of not less than two years immediately before such appointment.
In addition, any person who was at any time during the period of two years immediately before the appointment concerned was a judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities; a judge of the Court of First Instance attached to that Court; or a judge on a number of other international courts.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to reform the judicial appointments process and I intend to bring forward new legislation to do this very quickly. Ms McEntee said she will shortly seek the approval of the Government for a new General Scheme of a Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020 to provide for the establishment of a new Commission to replace the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.