Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

I want to draw to the Minister's attention to the structures of the Judicial Council. In certain cases, there is provision for an elected member of the District Court and an elected member of the Circuit Court. It is also provided in law that at least one of them must be of the opposite gender to another. That means that if, for instance, the District Court elects a woman, the Circuit Court has to elect a man. That seems to be something that the Minister should reconsider. It is a bit intrusive to say to Circuit Court judges or to District Court judges that whosoever they elect will determine who the judges of the other court can elect for the purpose of gender balance on the whole board, and especially now that there are so many women judges doing such fine work as judges in our system. On the need for strict rules of that kind, which disqualify people on the basis of what other judicial electorates decide, it seems unnecessary and overly complex.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02