Judge's pay - what is the purpose or benefit to the country of the constitution...

hatrickpatrick

...declaring that no judge can have his or her pay reduced during their time in office?

Bunreacht na hEireann, article 35 wrote:

5. The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office.

The only thing I can think of is maybe that if the government could reduce judge's pay, they could use this as a weapon to influence the decisions of the judiciary... OR is there some other reason?

And regardless of the current judges and their situation, why didn't they announce a reduction in the general salary for any future judges who may be appointed?

Arsenal1986

Your spot on, thats the reason and in fairness it makes sense

GSF

Its like the US constitution right to bear arms. It made sense once upon a time but probably not today. If we had a referendum would we have judges appearing on broadcasts to defend their salary?

Arsenal1986

Very true, made sense when we were a fledling little democracy not really now, not really big enough an issue to have a referendum on though

Brian Griffin

Arsenal1986 wrote: »

Your spot on, thats the reason and in fairness it makes sense

I agree it should be there, so that governments cant use pay to control the judges and it's important to have this.

But there should be some action on this, the judges should all agree that they will take the same cut as the rest of the public service and have the changes in pay written into there contract. They have no justification not to take the pay cut in the current climate, ie these cuts are not being used to control them but because they are needed.

ardmacha

The government have been spineless on the judges. The pension levy could have been imposed, just as judges pay income tax, as this is not directed at them but at a large body of people.