even today Judges sought to win favour of the Government by in‘State cases’ or by getting to know members of Government personally. While there was certainly a political element to judicial appointment for many years, it must be stated tough that they must have met the qualification standards and they were required to remain independent in their decisions.The system had come in for some criticism and since 1995 new arrangements have been in place which established a more transparent process for judicial appointments. This was established under the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995. An example of how this changed the system of appointments is seen in Section 16 of the Act. This provides that Judges must agree to undertake to any course of training or education required.It is clear that the system of appointments is getting better. It is probably true to say that members of the Judiciary remain largely from the middle classes. However as society becomes more developed and liberalised, future and present generations through the ever increasing role of the Media will not tolerate a closed system of appointments by the Government The “Separation of Powers”Within the Irish Law system both the 1922 and 1937 Constitutions details the powers of government as of three distinct types, LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE and JUDICIAL, but neither of the Constitutions actually prescribes a “separation of power”. As O Dalaigh stated, that “the Constitution of Ireland is found on the doctrine of a tripartite division of the powers of government”, where limitations are put in place of the power of the Legislature and the Executive. Lavery J said of the old article 2 in O’Byrne v Minister for Finance, “the separation of powers” was “imperfect” so far as the decision-making and law-making powers were concerned and “definite” only in the respect of the legal power, tho...
