Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 July 2004
313 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when he proposes to publish legislation dealing with judicial conduct; if he will publish the legislation in draft; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21209/04]
View answer314 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the consideration he has given to establishing the Institute of Judicial Studies on statutory footing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21210/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 313 and 314 together.
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 2 of 5 May last, when I said I expect to be in a position to seek Government approval to publish a Bill on judicial conduct and ethics in the current year. In response to a supplementary question on that date, I indicated that when the heads of the Bill are in a reasonable format, it is my intention to bring it before the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, as I did with other important legislation, so Members of both Houses can have a pre-emptive look at how it is developing. I have not changed my view in that regard. It is proposed that the Bill will establish a judicial council, which will be responsible for judicial conduct and ethics. It will also have among its functions the work being carried out by the Judicial Studies Institute and other activities of an educational nature beneficial to the Judiciary, as recommended by the committee on judicial conduct and ethics in chapter 7, paragraph 7 of its 2000 report.
