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IRELAND’S ATTORNEY GENERAL Máire Whelan is to become a Justice of the Court of Appeal.
The Department of the Taoiseach has confirmed that Whelan has been nominated to the court as a judge by the government at its meeting today.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice confirmed that this will almost certainly see Whelan leave her current role as Attorney General.
Whelan had held the role of AG, the most senior legal adviser in the State, since March 2011.
Her tenure was occasionally controversial, not least during the series of events that led to the retirement of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan in early 2014, when it emerged Whelan had received information regarding the systematic recording of conversations at Garda stations for nearly 20 years fully four months before the Taoiseach.
The government has also informed President Michael D Higgins of the nomination, as per constitutional procedure.
The vacancy at the Court of Appeal arose following the retirement of Justice Garrett Sheehan last March.
The Court itself, which was formed in order to expedite the appeals process and streamline the backlogged courts service, was first established in October 2014.
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She made two whopping errors as AG which should have seen her ousted from the Attorney Generals office. Yet she gets appointed to yet another pivotal position in the justice system? Cronyism is alive and well in this era of new politics.
@Muiris O’Daltuin: Sure look at your man Cardiff who miss laid a few billion in the government accounts. Promoted to the European court of auditors…….
@Muiris O’Daltuin: Absolutely agree. She is an incompetent promoted for political reasons to beyond her incompetents !!!
Yep, mores bout saving FG face, Noirin O Sullivan will be made Minister for Justice tomorrow. When will senior public servants stop being rewarded for failure.
@Paul Fahey: Noooooooooo ! Not Nodding Noirin !!!
@Paul Fahey: Haha! That would be absolutely hilarious!
Noreen is a dead woman walking. Simply a matter of whether Varadkar gets rid of her now it waits for the next scandal to do it.
@Brinster: I hope you are correct and if he is clever the grim reaper has been dispatched already, get rid of her early and set a stall out. He will see a bounce in his ratings and it will be the end of a vey damaging saga.
@Brinster: there has to be a next ? Ah here ..
@Brinster: if he doesn’t get rid of O’Sullivan now, then he is a incompetent as she !
Promotion upwards and away from trouble to make way for new AG appointment.
@Tony Daly: incompetence rewarded, this is a typical civil service appointment, in other words we want to get you out of a job you were poor at so to get rid of you a cushy number is required, like Kevin Cardiff who was promoted to ECB although he was in charge of the the greatest cock up in Irish financial history.
@Paul Lane: Indeed. How Ms Whelan got the top job of Attorney General is down to a little help of her Labour comrades (all thanks to Rabbitte, Gilmore & Bruton) while they were in cahoots with these FG clowns way back in 2011.
AG was largely responsible for Alan Shatter getting fired and present minister Francis Fitzgerald being appointed…..Shatter was good minster taking on the legal profession…. Fitzgerald is fine but cannot make any decisions….Lets hope we get new minster for justice and new Garda commissioner as well as AG.
It’s great to see Enda dishing out the sweets one more time.
Well done good and faithful service. Cronyism at it’s best!
Very pc tho .
Who cares about competency ?
A handy job for an insider.
Ah here, she was pretty awful as AG, and that’s the criteria for a judicial appointment? Oh dear
As always, the Irish sheeple will rant and rave and complain about cronyism and corruption and then roll over and forget all about it.
@John Campbell: How true John…..
An absolute disgrace. Whelan should have lost her job over Fennelly Report. This last minute appointment before Enda Kenny’s exit smacks of a perverted, grubby deal between two people who emerged from Fennelly Report smelling of dung. It stinks. Enda is good at this – remember McNulty affair ?
More of Enda’s jobs for the boy’s debacle. Doesn’t matter how useless you are at your job under this government you will never get sacked. Hopefully Leo will have more morals
@John Flanagan: you mean Burton not Bruton
I hope that I’m never dependent on the appeal court with this failure involved?!
Just look at her and her decisions. She is Just as incompetent and plain as Noreen O’Sullivan. How can there be any hope for this country ? Prove that your different l, dump both, Veradker .
Just look st her. She is as plain as Commissioner Noreen O’Sullivan , and just as inc
@VIncent McGloughlin: We would have assumed that as it was the Labour party which was being referred too, but thanks for your valuable contribution.
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