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IRELAND’S ATTORNEY GENERAL Máire Whelan is to become a Justice of the Court of Appeal.
The Department of the Taoiseach has confirmed that Whelan has been nominated to the court as a judge by the government at its meeting today.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice confirmed that this will almost certainly see Whelan leave her current role as Attorney General.
Whelan had held the role of AG, the most senior legal adviser in the State, since March 2011.
Her tenure was occasionally controversial, not least during the series of events that led to the retirement of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan in early 2014, when it emerged Whelan had received information regarding the systematic recording of conversations at Garda stations for nearly 20 years fully four months before the Taoiseach.
The government has also informed President Michael D Higgins of the nomination, as per constitutional procedure.
The vacancy at the Court of Appeal arose following the retirement of Justice Garrett Sheehan last March.
The Court itself, which was formed in order to expedite the appeals process and streamline the backlogged courts service, was first established in October 2014.
The Greens will be struggling to survive after the madness they have put us through since they got into power.
@Red Line: Can’t you not focus on the subject being discussed instead of taking potshots?
Take your frustration out in the polling booths instead of ruining the comments thread. The destruction of nature threatens our very existence.
@Ollie O’Cleirigh: The Greens are fake environmentalists. For example they approve of mass immigration, no matter of the impact on Ireland’s carbon footprint.
@Ollie O’Cleirigh: public discourse is far more important than voting even though both are important. The greens have set back the green agenda in Ireland for decades with lazy and incompetent political leaders and party members. They constantly commentate on our emissions and come up with no strategy as to how to mitigate them. Not one word from them on nuclear power and investment in our grid which cannot even connect new wind farms as its totally ineffective and at its capacity already. Then when asked about public they talk about hydrogen trains when electric trains would transform the islands public transport. Bicycle lanes painted on the side of roads and south facing window boxes. They are done. Get them out. Impoverishing the poor further particularly rurally will not help.
@Allora: 100%. There a bunch of amateur politicians that got lucky in the last election.
Malcom why is your so called Green party destroying wildlife habitats ,biodiversity killing trees wasting millions of taxpayers money at Lough Funshinagh flood crisis causing the demolition and flooding of homes farmyards and villages in a National housing crisis !! By not allowing the lake return to its natural level!!! Is there a hidden agenda ?
Well said Malcolm. Green policies are becoming accepted in most governments and we need a brave voice.
Just how committed is the government to preserving what’s left of our biodiversity? It allows coursing clubs to capture thousands of our native hares, supposedly a protected species, for the purpose of setting dogs on them. If that can happen to an iconic species that conservationists have dubbed the “Flagship of Irish biodiversity”, then how serious can our leaders be about saving our wildlife heritage? The image of a hare having its bones crushed or being tossed into the air by a coursing dog could aptly represent the attitude of this government to the wild creatures that share the island with us.
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