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The confrontation between the president of the Supreme Court and the judge of the Supreme Court, Séamus Woulfe, raises “serious constitutional problems”, the government has said.
In a statement shortly before lunchtime, the government said it would consider the correspondence between Judge Frank Clarke and Judge Woulfe, which was released Monday night.
“The Attorney General highlighted the serious constitutional issues that are now being raised and the respective responsibilities of each of the State bodies as established by the Constitution, including in particular the respective functions of the Judicial Power and the Oireachtas.
“The members of the Government, who are also members of the Oireachtas, are well aware of the sensitivity and seriousness of the problems and of the need to ensure that all stakeholders fully respect the constitutional framework. This includes avoiding inappropriate public comments.
“The Government agreed that it will continue to reflect on these issues.”
The Supreme Court is facing an unprecedented crisis after the Chief Justice said that Justice Woulfe should resign over his handling of the controversy following his attendance at an Oireachtas golf society dinner.
Judge Woulfe has told Judge Frank Clarke that he will not resign over the controversy, in which 80 people attended a dinner at a hotel event in Clifden, Co Galway on August 19, a day after the government tightened. Covid-19 restrictions on meetings.
Judge Clarke told the judge in a meeting last Thursday that he should resign and reiterated that opinion in letters last week and Monday.
The government’s statement comes after opposition parties urged Oireachtas members for caution in their public comments on the matter.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Labor Party’s education spokesperson, said it was “important for all Oireachtas members to just step back and realize the seriousness of this and that any public statement will be important in this regard.”
Judicial independence
He said that the independence of the judiciary was paramount and that any member “who makes comments on this issue should have clear in his mind the importance of that independence, which is crucial for the future of our democracy.”
Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Martin Kenny said the argument that Judge Woulfe’s position may now be untenable reflected the views of the judiciary.
“It is very clear that the judiciary does not believe that its position is defensible… We have to be careful how we proceed here, but at the same time we have to be firm that there must be accountability in the judiciary as well as accountability in politics. Kenny said.
Sinn Féin’s TD said the situation was “fraught with difficulties” but added that the party was “saying that its position is clearly untenable when it has lost the trust of its colleagues in the judiciary and the Chief Justice; that is it. it’s clearly what they have said. ”Mr. Kenny said it is up to Judge Woulfe or the Oireachta to find a solution to the problem.
The co-leader of the Social Democrats, Catherine Murphy, expressed doubts about the success of an impeachment process.
“I think it would be very difficult to see it succeed, since there was no broken law. And I think there will be a caution about starting with something that is weak, ”he told reporters Tuesday morning.
“That does not mean that there is not a very important problem of judgment. And the very fact that he is not able, or it will not be sustainable to work with his colleagues, is a very difficult situation, ”he said, adding that the resignation was a matter for Judge Woulfe only and that she was not asking him to dismiss.
“I think your position, if you look at it, you should ask yourself: is it sustainable? If you cannot work with your colleagues and your colleagues cannot work with you on the Supreme Court, that is a very difficult scenario and there is no simple solution for that. We do not have the experience of an impeachment process, and are the criteria sufficient to meet that standard? ” she asked.
‘Backed into the corner’
Former District Court Judge Michael Pattwell has said Supreme Court Justice Séamus Woulfe “should get a good PR person to help him” and that if he were in that situation, he would “let it unfold” and I would not quit.
The Chief Justice and the Supreme Court have been “cornered,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne program.
There is no law to support the position taken by the other members of the Supreme Court, he said.
The former judge asked how they could sit down with Judge Woulfe in the future. He added that he could not see that any impeachment effort was successful, “political or otherwise.”
While he criticized the way both former European Commissioner Phil Hogan and Judge Woulfe dealt with the aftermath of the Oireachtas golf dinner in Clifden, what had happened “was not serious enough” to justify the judge’s resignation, he said. Pattwell.
The Chief Justice, Justice Frank Clarke, should not have “invented a sanction” that did not exist in the law and it would have been better to “keep it to himself.” There was nothing to back up what Judge Clarke said; it was just an opinion, Pattwell added.
“If I were Séamus Woulfe, I would stay and let it unfold.”
As Chief Justice, Justice Clarke serves as Chief Justice and the highest judicial officer in the state.
Everything that had happened had happened because “Dara Calleary jumped too early” when he stepped down as agriculture minister, “Pattwell said.” He set the tone then. “
While he had “never been a fan” of Hogan, Pattwell said he seemed to be doing a good job in Europe.
On the same show, former Minister Shane Ross also said that the Supreme Court had backed into the issue. Susan Denham, a retired Chief Justice, had been asked to conduct an investigation, but Judge Clarke ignored her recommendation.
Politicians don’t want to touch the subject, said Ross, who championed reform of the judicial appointment system when he was last in office.
Former Labor leader and current party justice spokesman Brendan Howlin said politicians “can’t do anything” about the controversy.
As there were no judicial mechanisms left to solve the problem, it would now be up to the Oireachtas, he said.
This must be done in a very public, clear, transparent and impartial way, he said. This was a situation where each member of the Oireachtas would have to make an independent decision and it would not be a matter of whips or partisan positions, Howlin added.
He said that anyone who has been involved in the prior determination of the problem by making a call in one way or another should refrain from making any decision on the matter.
No member of the Oireachtas wanted to get involved in the process because they were so aware of the separation of powers. “It is not a process in which any politician wants to participate.”
According to the Constitution, a judge can be removed, but it must be a fair procedure, he emphasized.
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