JUDICIAL PAY:NEW APPOINTMENTS to the judiciary will be paid 10 per cent less than incumbents, and the next chief justice, due to be appointed in 2011, will have his or her salary capped at €250,000.
At the moment the Chief Justice is paid €295,000. Judges of the District Court earn €147,000, those of the Circuit Court receive €178,000, High Court judges earn €243,000 and judges of the Supreme Court €258,000.
Most members of the judiciary pay a voluntary pension levy of 10 per cent, following an agreement with the Revenue Commissioners in 2008 when the Government decided it could not impose this levy on the judiciary due to the constitutional ban on reducing the pay of serving members of the judiciary.
The Budget also envisages savings in current expenditure in the Department of Justice and Law Reform worth €74 million in 2011, rising to €230 million in a full year.
This includes a reduction of €5 million in criminal legal aid, €5 million in savings on asylum seekers’ accommodation, €20 million in Garda management efficiencies, €5 million in efficiencies across the courts and €24 million in other administrative efficiencies (€110 million in a full year).
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern welcomed provision for €80 million investment in the infrastructure of the justice sector.
He said this would ensure the provision of additional prison places, maintenance and upgrading of Garda ICT facilities, continued investment in the Courts Service and Property Registration Authority’s ICT systems, completion of a laboratory for the State Pathology Service, and the development of new juvenile detention facilities at Oberstown.