The Justice Minister insists she had enough experience to recommend the appointment of Seamus Woulfe

JUSTICE MINISTER Helen McEntee has rejected any suggestion that she had no experience recommending Seamus Woulfe as a Supreme Court justice.

The minister confirmed that the former prosecutor’s name was the only one she submitted to the leader of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Green Party for approval in the summer, just three weeks after being appointed minister.

McEntee said it examined the suitability of three sitting justices who had expressed interest in filling the vacant Supreme Court seat but decided that Woulfe was the best fit for the position.

“The inference here is that because I was not able to do that job for three weeks and I don’t think that’s fair,” the minister told RTÉ.

McEntee continues to face scrutiny around the process that led to Judge Woulfe’s appointment and has agreed to answer Dáil’s questions on the matter.

However, opposition parties have criticized his proposal to address the matter during a reshuffled late-night ministerial question session, a format that would require questions to be submitted ahead of time and a limit on the amount of TD that could contribute.

Woulfe has become the focus of controversy since attending the ‘golf-gate’ event in Clifden, Co Galway in August, when members of the Oireachtas golf society gathered for a dinner hosted in disagreement with Covid rules. .

He refused to resign for his handling of the incident despite a call from Chief Justice Frank Clarke to resign.

As that furor continues, attention has also turned to McEntee amid questions about whether he should have told the leaders of the three parties in the coalition the names of all those vying for the vacant judicial seat.

The minister has insisted that all her actions fully comply with the proper procedures.

Woulfe’s name was proposed to the minister by the independent Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, which assessed him as fit for the position, while the three sitting judges registered their expressions of interest through the attorney general’s office.

McEntee said she had been involved in six judicial appointment processes since she became minister and on some of those occasions she recommended a name to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and on others she had proposed a series of suitable candidates.

“In this case, I gave the name that I recommended that I thought was the best person for the job and I need to be clear about that, I looked at all the names, it is not someone that was randomly selected by me.” she said.

The minister said it took a “number of weeks” to screen all potential candidates in the frame.