Apologies made by two judges for derogatory remarks they made about immigrants have been welcomed by equality organisations.
The judges' apologies followed their comments from the bench in two separate cases involving immigrants, one for suggesting that all Nigerians drove without insurance and the other for a critical reference to "coloured" people.
The judges apologised on Thursday, within hours of each other, after a day of criticism by anti-racism and civil liberties groups.
Judge Harvey Kenny withdrew remarks he made in Castlebar Circuit Court on January 14th to Ms Bukky Abebanjo, who was appealing a District Court order to pay fines totalling €1,750 in respect of two charges of driving without insurance.
Rejecting her appeal, Judge Kenny had said: "I don't think any Nigerian is obeying the law of the land when it comes to driving. I had a few of them in Galway yesterday and they are all driving around without insurance and the way to stop this is to put you in jail."
Judge Kenny called Ms Abebanjo to court this week to say he made what he now realised was an "improper comment about Nigerians driving around without proper insurance and saying that you were lucky in not going to jail. I wish now to withdraw the remark and apologise to you for the offence such remark caused."
Meanwhile, Judge John Neilan apologised unreservedly for recent remarks in a case at Longford District Court of two non-national women who appeared before him on shoplifting charges. He adjourned their cases to May 6th, warning them that they would be deported if they reoffended.
"There are people in this State who have worked all of their lives and they don't, in their old-age pension, have the benefits these ladies have," he had said. "The majority of shopping centres in this District Court area will be putting a ban of access to coloured people if this type of behaviour does not stop."
Judge Neilan told Shannonside Northern Sound Radio on Thursday evening: "I am appalled to think that I would have the capacity to offend or insult anybody, least of all those who came before my court, in any particular regards and if my remarks have in any way offended anybody I would unreservedly, wholeheartedly withdraw the remarks in their entirety and extend my sincere apologies to the parties involved and indeed the community that they are drawn from in Longford.
"I have no axe to grind with these particular people and on the occasion in question I was simply seeking to alert the ladies on the basis of their presence in this State as refugees that I suppose in ordinary layman's terms, you know, not to be making life more difficult for themselves than it already was."
Judge Neilan said he had been seeking to point out that if the women were applying for citizenship, a previous conviction would appear on their CV and that would display a criminal record. He acknowledged he had no right to deport anybody.
Mr Niall Crowley from the Equality Authority said the response of the two judges was "very positive" but it was important to learn from what had happened and to put in place supports included training in equality and diversity for the judiciary.
"Remarks like these do reinforce negative stereotypes and feed tensions that are there in society and that has been done. I think they are certainly addressing that by making those apologies," he added.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties welcomed Judge Kenny's apology, as he had made it very clear that he considered his comments inappropriate and he withdrew them. However its director, Ms Aisling Reidy, said while it was welcome that Judge Neilan had apologised to people who may have been offended, "his apology does not reflect any acknowledgement that he considered his comments to be inappropriate".