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LAST UPDATE | 13 Oct 2020
A MEETING BETWEEN Mr Justice Séamus Woulfe and the Chief Justice Frank Clarke has been postponed for the third time.
The judges were due to discuss the ongoing fallout over Woulfe’s attendance at the controversial ‘Golfgate’ dinner in Clifden in August where 81 people gathered in what is viewed as a breach of the public health guidelines at the time.
The two judges were due to meet last Monday, but Woulfe requested a postponement until Friday for “personal reasons”, a statement from the courts service said.
A further postponement then took place on “medical grounds” until today. A statement from the courts service said that the Chief Justice “has emphasised to Mr Justice Woulfe the urgency of bringing this process forward”.
The meeting has again been postponed.
In a statement this afternoon, a spokesman for the Chief Justice said: “The Chief Justice and a colleague of the Supreme Court were due to meet Mr Justice Woulfe and a judicial colleague of his choice today. At the request of Mr Justice Woulfe’s colleague, the Chief Justice and Mr Justice O’Donnell met with that colleague.
Mr Justice Woulfe, through his colleague, requested a further postponement of the meeting. As a result of what was said at that meeting, the Chief Justice has indicated that, very reluctantly, is he prepared to make one final postponement of the proposed meeting until Thursday.
The statement said that the Chief Justice has “indicated his very serious concern as to the damage which the continuation of this process is causing”.
“The Chief Justice has made it clear that, should the meeting not go ahead as scheduled on Thursday, he ill make alternative arrangements to convey his final views on the process to Mr Justice Woulfe,” the spokesman said.
Denham report
Earlier this month, a review into Woulfe’s attendance at the dinner by former chief justice Susan Denham found it would be “unjust and disproportionate” for the judge to resign.
However, further controversy ensued after transcripts of an interview given by Woulfe to Denham in the course of the review were later released, and described media coverage of the scandal as “appalling” “overblown” and “fake”, with claims the social event was treated like the “Ku Klux Klan”.
Despite Woulfe issuing a statement where he apologised “unreservedly” for attending an event where breaches “may have occurred”, he said during this interview with Denham that though he apologised, he wasn’t sure what he had to apologise for.
He said: “If it still is the case that there was intentional breach on my part I obviously apologise, still apologise and apologise again. But it is fair to say that it appears now, objectively, that there was no breach by the organisers, let alone by me.”
Woulfe also said that he felt sorry for “some of the unfortunate politicians” who “feel the need to confess to a crime they may not have committed”. Dara Calleary resigned as Minister for Agriculture and deputy leader of Fianna Fáil after attending the dinner in Clifden, while Fine Gael’s Phil Hogan resigned as EU Trade Commissioner.
In her report, Denham suggested that the fallout from the Golfgate controversy could be dealt with by way of an informal resolution.
In July, Woulfe was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court – Ireland’s highest court – after he was replaced in his role as Attorney General by Paul Gallagher as part of the formation of a new government.
With reporting by Hayley Halpin
Does nobody value cheap flights? Why such snobbery over Ryanair? It does exactly what it says on the tin. I, for one, recall paying £379 to Aer Lingus in the seventies to fly one way to London from Dublin with no smiling air hostesses either as I well recall. I also remember the awful boat journeys between Holyhead and Dun Laoighre and the train journey to Euston for three times what you’d get a return Ryanair flight for now! Anyone who criticises Ryanair either wasn’t around in the bad old days or has a very short memory…
No they just cant help but put down the most successful airline in Europe, typical Irish attitude to slate and put down anything successful in Ireland by an Irish person.
Fair comment John.
My concern, would Ryanair consider moving HQ from Dublin if they had an interest in Stansted. This would remove one obstacle to buying Aer Lingus if technically they were a British airline.
They recently issued a warning regarding Irelands current corporate tax rate.
2009 Six of us being charged €550 each to fly from Krakow to Dublin by Ryanair, and you think that’s cheap? What would you call expensive?
Ryan air will switch off the lights and sell the public torches as they enter the terminal
And he’ll either rent out the seats for people to sit or, or make them bring their own, make them bring their own food, and charge them for rubbish collection.
To be fair I doubt they could do anything to ruin Stansted that hasn’t been done already.
Agreed, stanstead is one of the nastiest modern built airports iv ever experienced! I mean Heathrow is bad but stanstead is like a cow shed with windows!
I agree with you Tony, but it is one airport that i never really had problems with. Your in and out really quick. The Stansted express always has problems.
He should be running the country , your ticket is a fraction of what you paid in the 80′s ,he’s brought efficiencies punctuality cost savings value for money huge profits ( nothing the unions have ever done) new routes 1000′s of jobs and still pays all his taxes in Ireland .lastly it’s an irish success story nnWhy the whining ???
couldn’t agree more!
They do have form challenging monopolies – think Aer Lingus in the 1980s.
Plus they would only be part of a consortium and have large cash reserves built up so might as well invest them.
Hopefully there’ll be greater competition between Irish airports soon.
No flies on O’leary and if there were they would be paying rent.
He has a mush you’d love to take a penalty with.
I read an article once in which Michael O Leary said he would have people go straight from the car park onto the planes.
Obviously thats not going to happen but that is the lines in which he thinks.
Taking out all the waiting around… It sounds great! You could arrive 15 minutes before your flight rather than two hours!
Actually I think his thinking would be the opposite. If you get out of the car and on to the plane where is he going to make money on the airport? More like keep you waiting to check in for an hour or two and in the mean while why not avail of the over priced facilities. That’s the game plan that he would be looking at.
I’d reckon ryanairs aim would be to reduce their costs from the airport, and thus pass on reduction to passengers, they want bums on seats. Having a say in how stanstead operates the more say the better really, if they don’t compete with other airports they will fail so I couldn’t see this as anything but positive for customers. London has plenty of airports and they can compete. As said earlier stansted isn’t a shining light as it stands. BAA obviously prefer Gatwick (maybe that has been their plan ironically)
They sold Gatwick back in 2009. They sold it for £1.5 billion to an Investment group than control London city airport.
Seems to make perfect sense to me. Having a major airline as a shareholder (and presumably a board member) would surely help focus the airport’s efforts on efficiency etc. I think its typical scaremongering, all these comments about MO’L charging to use seats….
Why the whining he should be running the country- he’s brought value for money cost savings punctuality new destinations ( they are irish ) and he pays all his taxes in Ireland . nnWhat do people want ? He gets you to your destination what more do you want for €20 including tax nIf ye can’t go to Spain for a week with cabin baggage fair play to them for charging you extra
went to England recently. My suitcase was 14.4kg going over and mysteriously 16.6kg coming back. The only difference in my bag was a bottle of shampoo. Must have been a 2.2.kg bottle.
What airports do they control???? Comfort ? What do you want ,they bring you to your destination cheaper than anyone else. Convenience? They want to make travelling more convenient bag less check in print your own boarding pass- they are changing how we travel? Service? Ye want a coffee €2:50 ye don’t want one then don’t pay for it , they are the biggest airline in Europe and don’t get me started on the ferries Jesus!!!!!
You mean Irish ‘Latvian’ Ferries??
One of Stansted’s biggest problems is transport, especially if you are coming from North or West London.
If Ryanair take it over, I probably won’t use it again. Their facilities are appalling in any airport they control. They don’t care about comfort, convenience or service. The day will come when they start paying the price for that in lower numbers as people switch to other airlines and ferries.
only for ryanain stanstid would not exist s much ad i heat flying with them they made that airport when they left luton
I read that in my head like the policeman in ‘allo ‘allo
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