The Labour Party has called on the High Court judge, Mr Justice Matthew P. Smith, to clarify the reason he decided to resign from the bench 13 months before he was officially due to retire.
It emerged that Mr Justice Smith, who is also chairman of the Standards in Public Offices Commission (SIPO) - the political standards watchdog - tendered his resignation to the President, Mrs McAleese, last week.
The resignation came days in advance of a Sunday newspaper story, which reported that Mr Justice Smith had been unavailable for High Court work since his appointment to the commission in December 2001, citing pressures of work relating to his work at SIPO.
The Sunday Tribune also reported that records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that, in recent times, the judge attended the offices of SIPO on an average of three times a month.
The figures obtained by the paper showed that Mr Justice Smith attended the office on nine occasions between mid-July and mid- October.
No other records relating to the attendances of the judge at SIPO offices were available as they were excluded under the FOI act, the paper reported.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice confirmed that Mr Justice Smith had tendered his resignation with effect from December 31st this year. She said the judge would continue in his role as chairman of SIPO.
According to the records of the Courts Service, Mr Justice Smith was due to retire in March 2006. Yesterday the Department of Justice was unable to say what reason the judge had given for his resignation before his scheduled retirement date.
The judge was unavailable for comment when The Irish Times called to his house in Co Meath last night. However the judge is believed to have informed a number of people in recent days that he took the decision to stand down from the bench early because 2005 would mark his 20th year on the bench.
Last night a spokesman for the Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the party "would hope that he would clarify the reasons why he has resigned".
Apart from his judge's pension, Mr Justice Smith is expected to receive additional payment for his continued work with SIPO. This is expected to be a per diem rate of between 1800 - 1900 a day, based on the salary of a High Court judge.
Mr Justice Smith, the first to hold the chair of SIPO, has stressed the need for openness and transparency to be at the centre of public life, on various occasions when speaking in his role as Commission chairman. He also chaired the Independent Commission on Electronic
Voting whose critical report led to it being abandoned for the last local and European elections. It found that the security of the voting system could not be guaranteed in time for the elections to be held.
