Judicial conduct committee comments
Deputy Kenny referred to the Judicial Council Bill and the slow progress on ethics and complaints procedures in light of recent events. The Chair ruled that comments on a member of the Judiciary were inappropriate and cut the matter off.
The Judicial Council Bill 2019 was passed through the Houses of the Oireachtas. One of the major parts of the Bill was to establish a judicial conduct committee and that has been set up. In its most recent report of 29 September the drafting of guidelines on ethics and conduct were only in place and the drafting of procedures for making complaints about the Judiciary was only being put in place. This comes, of course, in the context of the situation that has developed in the last couple of weeks. I and I am sure most Deputies have been contacted by many people from the media in recent days and I have been very reluctant to make any comment. I respect the Judiciary and the separation of powers between it and the Oireachtas. However, having read the transcript between Ms Justice Denham and Mr. Justice Woulfe, it appears that Mr. Justice Woulfe has little respect for that separation of powers and has a very cavalier attitude to anyone trying to implement-----
Comment on this
I was simply going to suggest that the Taoiseach write-----