Two judges apologised in rapid succession yesterday for remarks about immigrants, one for suggesting that all Nigerians drove without insurance and the other for implying "coloured" people were prone to shoplifting.
Before the apologies, the Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, and Green Party deputy, Mr Ciaran Cuffe, unsuccessfully sought to raise these remarks in the Dáil.
Judge Harvey Kenny withdrew remarks he made in Castlebar District 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.
Addressing Ms Abebanjo in court yesterday, he said he had 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".
Rejecting her appeal on January 14th, 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.
"Word would go out then in the Nigerian community that if you must drive, you must have insurance. I don't see anything wrong with the District Court order in this case. You are lucky you are not going to jail."
A few hours after Judge Kenny's apology, Longford District Court Judge John Neilan said he was "appalled" to think that comments he had made had caused offence, and he apologised unreservedly. His remarks had concerned shoplifting by "coloured" people. He made the remarks recently in the case of two non-national women appearing before him on shoplifting charges. He adjourned their cases to May 6th, warning 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 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."
A spokesman for the Courts Service said last night that Judge Neilan had let it be known that "he's appalled to think that anything that he said could cause so much offence to so many people, and if he did offend people he would want to apologise and he does so unreservedly."
Longford Chamber of Commerce had already distanced itself from the remarks, saying that the proportion of crime carried out by the immigrant community in the county was lower than that carried out by local people.
On the Order of Business in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Rabbitte asked the Tánaiste when the Government would bring forward the Judicial Conduct and Ethics Bill, "having regard to recent remarks by at least one member of the judiciary". Ms Harney said it would be published early next year. Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O'Hanlon told Mr Cuffe that the judiciary was independent of the Dáil when he attempted to raise "the remarks of certain justices regarding a person's nationality or colour".