. . . proposed pay cuts for judges
Why is the issue of judges' pay in the news?The Government is planning to introduce lower pay for judges appointed in the future. For those at the top end, serving in the Supreme Court and High Court, the new rates will be 31 per cent less than the amounts paid to those in place at the moment. This would see the salary of the next chief justice, due to be appointed in the months ahead, set at €203,425, down from €295,916. Separately, the Government is also planning a referendum later this year that would allow it to reduce the pay of serving judges.
What's the big deal? Haven't pay cuts been introduced right across the public service? What's so special about judges?Judges are paid from the public purse. However, given the strict separation between the executive and the judiciary, the issue of the payment of judges has always been tricky. Judges do not have trade unions to represent them in negotiations, and their pay has over recent decades been determined on the basis of the recommendations of an independent body that examined top-level remuneration in the public service. That was fine when pay was going up. It became a little more problematic when the last government wanted to cut the public-service pay bill as its finances deteriorated, and introduced both a public-service pension levy and a straightforward pay cut.
Judges, however, are the only group to have constitutional protection for their remuneration. This provision was originally aimed at protecting the independence of the judiciary and ensuring that a government of the day could not seek to cut the pay of a judge or group of judges as a reprisal for a decision or decisions that it did not like.
When the Fianna Fáil-Green government moved to introduce the pension levy for public servants in early 2009, the then attorney general advised that the constitutional ban applied. Therefore, while everybody else in the public service had their take-home pay reduced as a result of the pension levy and the subsequent second pay cut, the following year, the pay of the judiciary was not affected.
Did this mean that judges escaped the pay cuts completely?No. In May 2009 the chief justice, John Murray, announced that arrangements had been made with Revenue whereby judges could pay a sum equivalent to the pension levy imposed on all public servants. For judges this figure was about 10 per cent of salary. This measure was voluntary, however, and not all judges have made such contributions.
So what happens now?Traditionally, judges have remained silent in response to the issue of pay, so any public statements are unlikely. Theoretically, a judge who felt strongly enough could resign from the bench. It also remains to be seen whether the decision to set the new lower pay scales will have any implication for the number of senior lawyers who seek to become judges in the future. The Government's planned referendum will take place in the autumn; the full legislation to be introduced in the event of its being passed has yet to be seen. But there seems little doubt that the referendum to amend the Constitution will be voted through by the people.
