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IRELAND NEEDS MORE judges, according to Chief Justice Susan Denham.
Denham has noted how Ireland has the lowest number of judges per head of population in the 47 Council of Europe Member States.
“This all paints a picture of a Judiciary and Courts system that has been under developed,” Denham said.
She stated that while the seven new courthouses planned across the country will “greatly add to the services offered by the Courts”, more needs to be done.
Denham said she remained “mindful of the need for extra resources and staffing in an area of government stripped of any excess and still fighting to maintain services to which people have a right, and expect”.
In 2012, the Government announced a €120 million Public Private Partnership initiative that will see courthouses built in Drogheda, Letterkenny, Wexford town, Mullingar, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.
Speaking on the economic downturn, Denham said it should be acknowledged that “judges have played a significant role in giving dedicated and diligent service to the State at a difficult time in our Nation’s history”.
The Chief Justice made the comments in a statement released today to mark the beginning of the legal year.
Denham praised the independence of Irish judges, noting that the perception of their independence is ranked only second to Finland in the 28 EU States and third behind New Zealand and Finland in an international study on judiciaries in 148 developed countries.
She also welcomed the Government’s indication that a Bill to establish a Judicial Council has priority, adding that bodies such as the United Nations have recognised the need for such a council – something that has been considered for the last 16 years.
However, she acknowledged that changes in how judges are appointed need to be made, citing how judges had formed the Judicial Appointments Review Committee earlier this year to draft recommendations in response a review carried out by the Department of Justice and Equality.
In the space of a few weeks, the Presidents of each Court and Judges representing their colleagues, developed a strong submission with recommendations, inter alia, that party political allegiance should play no part in the appointment of a Judge, and that the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board should be adequately resourced.
Denham welcomed the fact that a Court of Appeal was going to be created following the 2013 Constitutional Amendment Referendum in 2013, which allowed for a new court to be set up between the High Court and Supreme Court.
She described the move as “historic”, noting: “It is the most important development in the structure of the Courts since the foundation of the State.
This very important development in Ireland’s legal system will enable cases appealed from the High Court to be heard in a timely fashion.
The Court of Appeal is set to begin hearing cases later this autumn.
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Yahoo opened a new office next to the Gibson hotel in the docklands. Dublin seems to be booming again. Good news for the country.
They were actually already in the east point business park, just move across the road really. Verizon are opening a new global procurement centre in East Point, looking to hire 180 people.
Why is this building so low rise? have DCC learned nothing?
I read they’re keeping the office at East Point. The new office block at the Point is to house these 200 new jobs. The company is relocating most of its business to Dublin from London.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/item/31957-yahoo-to-create-more-than
The first comment no this article was as expected, a negative sniping one, typical of the ‘knocking’ culture in Ireland.
This one always comes to mind. “The Irish don’t know what they want and are prepared to fight to the death to get it.”
I like knockers.
Me too. But only nice knockers ;)
Only a Shinner type dimwit is unhappy with good news. They are a depressing lot.
I’m a Sinn Fein supporter and I welcome this. As we’ve seen recently Sinn Fein are the best of all parties at persuading Americans to part with their money. Is that what we need in Ireland Inc?
There was another article about large companies not coming to Dublin due to lack of office space. With Microsoft vacating 3 buildings this could alleviate some of that problem, admittedly the sites are not city centre but do have good connections into town.
They are likely already let out. Not much high quality space like that available.
What needs to happen is for the offices Cherrywood to get built quicker. It’s 5 minutes further down the M50, directly onto the N11 into town, has two luas stops and it’s not far from nice housing like Foxrock or Dalkey.
That site has been bought so hopefully some move towards the end of the year…..also plans for up to three thousand (hopefully reasonably priced) houses!
Hope on scottie! Reasonably priced houses in Ireland? Lol! There is a ton more room for development in Sandyford and Stillorgan business parks, the buildings Microsoft are leaving are large high quality ones, they’ll be let in no time. There is plenty of room left for apartment development in Sandyford too. It really was a great facility they built around the beacon. Lived there for 18 months. Every shop you need on your doorstep, excellent transport, decent quality construction, energy efficient apartments. Pity there wasn’t more built like it at the time. A very sustainable development. There’s shop for that area still though. As with cherry wood. The luas makes all the difference to these places. Great news from Microsoft. Great for the country, a vote of confidence to invest so much.
We can but hope! I work in the area and agree…sandyford has most of what u need but it always feels like a ghost town after office hours up there….a sort of concrete jungle with no atmosphere. Site opposite the south quarter has recently been bought, down from microsofts current place…so plenty of potential for res units there!
Well done Microsoft, IDA and Ireland. A great vote of confidence in the competence of the Irish.
Always good to see job creation. But will multinationals bring decent paying jobs? Will these jobs stop brain drain of Irish graduates?
I have enjoyed how the name of Sandyford industrial estate has changed to become more fashionable over the years.
Is it a innovation park now?
Decent place for a business though, a proper cluster of companies in the area, excellent transport links, decent public transport and lots of nice houses nearby. Bit dull as a place to live but that’s about the worst of it.
I wonder how many new jobs and opportunities Enda has to announce and get his picture in until people start thinking that he’s actually doing a very good job?
This was announced already, last year.
If anyone works in the area, things are going to get interesting with this & the redevelopment of the roundabout junction at Leopardstown road/Brewery Road!
I thought it was handled well with the Luas bridge. The traffic isn’t as bad as it used to be.
Is it done?
(I haven’t worked there for a few months)
The roundabout will be removed and replaced by a box junction.
Not before time Business Cat. They did add a little side road near Bewley, down the back of woodies that brings you to the business Park when coming from the m50 roundabout, that cuts out the need to go down to the leopardstown RA, but last time I was using it frequently people didn’t seem to know about it and we’re using the RA still. It takes a good few mins out of it at peak times tbh.
Great, more people paying taxes, to fund my welfare benefits!
Cool. Seventy five construction jobs per annum for two years. Any chance of a national holiday?
Sheik,
By there very nature construction jobs tend not to be forever, once the building is finished so are the jobs.
There’s one of those the week after next.
Sheik has a valid point. This isn’t going to create long term employment in the IT sector.
Best not bother then.
Sorry Microsoft, build your office somewhere else!
Isn’t it better than nothing?
@Sheik Yahbouti,
Most of those construction jobs will be done by Eastern Europeans, working for a pittance.
This building is horrible. They have cut down lots of the trees that boarder the Leopardstown race course grounds making a nice park-like area thar bit more concrete
Christ… Is there anything yee wont p!ss & moan about!
Sinead,
“This building is horrible”
Ht building they haven’t even dug the foundations yet.
Well it will have windows i guess ?
That was so bad it was good…
This was made public over 6 months ago.
http://www.thejournal.ie/microsoft-go-ahead-dun-laoghaire-campus-1606576-Aug2014/
Anyway it’s very good news to see them making a commitment like this!
It’s only going to create temporary employment in the building trade.
Yes how true, and it is a solid investment in the permanent Jobs already in place.
So temporary jobs now.
Job security for those currently at Microsoft.
And a good signal to other companies that Ireland is a place they choose to invest in.
There jobs were never at risk.
Microsoft has been here already for years.
Dell was here for years. Also, is there such a thing as a permanent construction job?
Every job in construction is temporary. You can’t build something forever.
Dont tell “Bob” that
Great news. The only pity is to see all these IT companies out on greenfield sites when it would be much better to have them all close together in high rise office buildings.
Every job announcement the FG fan boys start to congratulate themselves,why do you have to type it when you can just reach across the desk and lick each other’s balls .
Epdc-5 was supposed to be the consolidated building for the atrium 12 years. Things quickly grew beyond that plan keeping the atrium in use. Also Google did not coin the work hard play hard tech attitude. Plenty of companies did that here long before Google even existed.
have your say