WOULFE ‘WOULD MAKE A GOOD JUDGE’
Party leader Leo praised his ex-AG to minister before she made her choice
TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar told Justice Minister Helen McEntee that Séamus Woulfe ‘would make a good judge’, before she recommended him to Cabinet.
Mr Varadkar, who had been taoiseach when Mr Woulfe was attorney general in t he last government, made his comment before Ms McEntee considered any other candidate for the €220,000-a-year role as a judge on the Supreme Court, she said.
The minister also revealed, at a two- hour session in the Dáil yesterday, that five sitting judges had expressed their interest in the position. It had been thought that only three had done so.
And she reiterated that she only informed the Government party l eaders of one name for the position, Mr Woulfe.
She said that before she became aware of the interest from sitting judges, she had a ‘conversation informally’ with her party leader, Mr Varadkar, in which he ‘gave the view that Séamus Woulfe would be a good judge’. That was before she made a recommendation to Cabinet.
She said: ‘ He gave his view and made his opinion. Following that, after I received other names, I looked at those names. It is my role as Minister of Justice to make a recommendation. I made that recommendation to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister Ryan and the AG.’
At that point she made a recommendation to Cabinet. She told the Dáil yesterday: ‘ This Government has acted appropriately at all times through the current process.’
Judge Woulfe’s name was the only one she put f orward. He was proposed to the minister by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board (JAAB), while three sitting judges registered their interest through the attorney general’s office.
The JAAB is a vetting process for non-judges, such as solicitors and barristers, to go through before they can be considered for judicial posts.
There are two other channels whereby sitting j udges can be appointed, one where judges are deemed suitable for promotion and the other where they directly apply.
Minister McEntee insisted the Cabinet handbook does not require her to collaborate with other ministers in choosing nominees before making a proposal to Cabinet.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked her: ‘What criteria did she use to evaluate the applications? Who else was involved? What value was put on track record and judicial experience?’ Minister
‘An old-fashioned political stroke’
McEntee said she used her own personal judgment and that she is not ‘given a list or boxes to tick’.
Labour TD and former Cabinet minister Brendan Howlin said in his experience, the appointment of senior judges always drew scrutiny.
‘Few appointments receive greater scrutiny than the appointment of senior judges, so much so in fact that one government fell in 1994 on the basis of lack of cross-party agreement,’ he said. ‘While it is correct to say that the Minister of Justice proposes one name to Government for appointment, it was never the sole or exclusive right of that minister to determine on their own who should be nominated.’
He asserted that a political deal had been done before Ms McEntee had been appointed and that she was left with a ‘fait accompli’ to instil Mr Woulfe as Supreme Court judge.
He said: ‘As Richard Nixon discovered, it is not always the action that is one’s undoing, sometimes it is the strain i nvolved i n presenting a version of events that – to anybody who actually knows the process, or who simply follows politics or history – is not credible.’
Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny said ‘any reasonable person’ would have expected Ms McEntee to come before the Dáil and explain how four names were whittled down to one, but she had not done that.
‘You didn’t tell the Taoiseach there were other applicants,’ he said. ‘Why was the Fianna Fáil leader kept in the dark in regard to this when your own party leader and others were aware of other applicants? So much of your story just doesn’t add up, minister,’ he said.
Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy said Fine Gael had a ‘problem with cronyism’.
‘This was an old-fashioned political stroke, it’s as simple as that,’ he said, ‘everybody knows this was a shady deal. They know that it stinks.’
Bríd Smith, of Solidarity-PBP, said she believed Ms McEntee had used the vacancy to appoint a ‘politicallyconnected person’ and that there
was ‘ no such thing as the separation of powers’.
A spokesman for Mr Varadkar last night said: ‘The Tánaiste made the Minister for Justice aware of a vacancy on the Supreme Court after he had made the other party leaders aware.
‘As the Minister for Justice has said, the Tánaiste expressed an opinion that Séamus Woulfe would be a good j udge. This was in line with the recommendation of Séamus Woulfe by JAAB, which is chaired by the Chief Justice. As
Minister McEntee has said, t he Tánaiste did not i nstruct the Minister f or Justice to propose Séamus Woulfe, and he was not aware of the names of the f i ve other j udges who expressed an interest, then or subsequently.
‘ Some weeks l ater, Minister McEntee contacted the Tánaiste and the other party leaders to say she was recommending Séamus Woulfe. The Tánaiste and the other leaders agreed.’