Legislation to set up a judicial council dealing with complaints against judges should be before the Oireachtas by the end of the year, said a spokesman for Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, writes Carol Coulter.
This follows approval in principle of a draft heads of a Judicial Council Bill by a judicial conference, subject to the proviso that audio recording be set up in all courtrooms before the part of the Bill relating to complaints against judges in a courtroom setting is brought into force.
A judicial council was first proposed over a decade ago by the then Chief Justice, Mr Justice Ronan Keane.
