The law Society has called for the withdrawal of an advertisement for jobs in the Attorney General's office, which it says is discriminatory.
The advertisement in yesterday's newspapers, which was placed by the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners, states:
"Barristers required for positions as Third Legal Assistant and Fourth Legal Assistant in the office of the Attorney General." It says "applicants must have been called to the Bar", and must have been practising as a barrister in the State for at least seven years for the position of Third Legal Assistant and four years for the Fourth Legal Assistant post.
But Mr Ken Murphy, director of the Law Society, said the jobs could be carried out by solicitors, and he intends to "protest in the strongest possible terms at this continued discrimination.
"More than 80 per cent of the lawyers in this country are solicitors, so it does not even make sense to so reduce the pool of legal talent from which the Government could choose." Mr Alan Shatter TD, Fine Gael spokesman on justice, last night said there was no basis for confining such appointments to members of the Bar. "These positions could be suitably filled not only by members of the Bar but also by qualified solicitors and legal academics," he said. The pool from which such appointments could be made should be "substantially extended", to ensure the State chose the best candidate.
Mr Padraig Love, assistant chief executive of the senior management and professional recruitment section in the office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission, said the commission was essentially a "recruiting agency" for the Civil Service and was not involved in defining posts.
"The Attorney General's office is the one that defines the job and they have always insisted on this, that only barristers should hold these positions," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office said the positions of legal assistants in the office had "always gone to barristers" but that "the majority of legal positions in the Civil Service go to solicitors, so this provides some kind of equity between barristers and solicitors".
The salary for a Fourth Legal Assistant in the AG's office is between £34,857 and £44,794, per year, while that for Third Legal Assistant is between £45,311 and £55,879.
