THE ATTORNEY General, Máire Whelan SC, was congratulated on her appointment and welcomed in a visit to the Supreme Court yesterday by Chief Justice Mr Justice John Murray. He was accompanied by the full court, including the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Kearns.
Mr Justice Murray said her office was a constitutional one which the Supreme Court had acknowledged as one of the “organs of State” authorised to exercise constitutional functions on behalf of the people, with quasi- judicial as well as executive functions. “That was a statement made in a judgment of this court over 50 years ago,” Mr Justice Murray said. “While it was then a true reflection of the important constitutional functions of the Attorney General, it is even more so in the present era when the constitutional and legal environment in which the State is governed is much more complex.”
Ms Whelan said that in her role she had the rich jurisprudence of the Irish courts to draw on. Among those present were former attorneys general Eoghan Fitzsimons SC and John Rogers SC, chairman of the Bar Council Paul O’Higgins SC, and president of the Law Society John Costello.
