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A FORMER HIGH COURT judge is to head the independent body overseeing the referendum on cutting judges’ pay, to be held next month.
Justice Bryan MacMahon will be the chairman of the Referendum Commission, which is tasked with producing impartial documentation and literature on the referendum, explain the referendum to the voting public, and encourage people to vote.
MacMahon was nominated by the Chief Justice, Susan Denham, who is required by law to choose a serving or former judge to oversee referendum campaigns.
As a retired judge, MacMahon receives a pension linked to a current judges’ salary – meaning the level of his own pension will likely be cut if the referendum is passed.
The appointment of a sitting judge, though, would have meant that the chairperson of the commission was a greater stakeholder in the outcome of the ballot.
As well as producing literature and taking out advertising for the referendum, the Commission is also tasked with considering applications from bodies or groups who want to appoint ‘agents’ to be present in polling stations and at count centres.
Other members of the Commission – appointed by law – are the Comptroller and Auditor General, John Buckley; the Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly; Dáil clerk Kieran Coughlan; and Seanad clerk Deirdre Lane.
The referendum, to be held on October 27 alongside the presidential election, will replace Article 35.5 of the current Constitution with a clause allowing judges’ pay to be cut in line with cuts being applied to others paid from the public purse.
A second referendum is also set to be held on the same day, giving Oireachtas committees the permission to conduct investigations and make findings of fact.
A commission cannot be appointed for this referendum, however, until the government publishes the wording for that proposed constitutional amendment, which it has not yet done.
On instances where multiple referenda have been held on the same day, separate Referendum Commissions are established, though on previous occasions the same judge has been nominated to act as the chairman of both – meaning that each has precisely the same membership, and is effectively the same institution.
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Israel are bullies simple as that.
Absolutely agree – your comment is very simple…
Steven,
that conflict will never be end simply because the Zionist want it to be continuo to allow them control the world and to abuse america and Europe for more hundred years, the Israeli and Zionist are guiding the USA to a trap hell every few years they create war after war simply because that kind of people can not live without conflicts and unrest
Empty words, prospect of peace with a multitude of preconditions. It seems to me that both sides enjoy being in a peace process, but neither wants it to come to fruition. It’s sort of like organized, controlled war. Mad.
As a Zionist, I can assure the previous writer that the “control of the world” figures nowhere in Zionism, our concern is the control, under G-d of the land given us by Him (Baruch HaShem). perhaps he should consider who does wish to control the world, the activity of Islamic Fundamentalists in every part of the world would respectfully suggest that it is the Islamic enemies of Zionism that wish to control the world. Perhaps the gentleman would get his facts clear before posting again.
Frank Faldo “Israel are bullies”, how do you justify that. It is not the Israelis who daily target innocent men women and children with rocket attacks, rather it is the enemies of Israel in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who launch rocket attacks against Israeli people, military and civillian, men women and children alike. Israel only reacts to acts of terrorism and where possible, ensures that no non terrorist victims.
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