Ireland: Justice chief warns against ‘positive discrimination’

Article here. Excerpt:

'There are no female High Court judges in Northern Ireland, while women are also significantly under represented at county court judge and QC level.

But Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, in a rare appearance before Stormont’s Justice Committee, insisted that the principle of merit had to be applied.
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He also revealed that a bid to attract two members of the public to join the group he established for the very purpose of helping to provide more clarity around sentences had an “embarrassing” outcome, as nobody applied to fill the posts.
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In regard to the lack of women in top judicial posts, Sir Declan said he was determined to bring about a culture change within the profession to ensure that females were afforded opportunities and helped to reach their full potential.

But the senior judge said giving them preferential treatment in terms of appointments was not the way to do that.

“We cannot use positive discrimination,” he said.

“It would be unlawful for us to do it, and secondly we have to appoint on merit because the statute tells us we have to do that, now somebody could rewrite the statute and the rules could be different.”

The Lord Chief Justice said elements of positive discrimination were in operation in South Africa but warned that they had proved extremely contentious and resulted in dissuading many people from going for jobs.

“That’s the danger we must guard against,” he said.'