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Mr Justice Seamus Woulfe Niall Carson via PA Images
Supreme Court

Embattled judge Seamus Woulfe listed for his first Supreme Court sitting next month

Woulfe is listed for sittings on three days next month, 4, 12 and 19 February.

THE SUPREME COURT judge Mr Justice Seamus Woulfe has been listed for his first sitting of the court next month. 

Woulfe is listed for sittings on three days next month, 4, 12 and 19 February. 

He was nominated to the Supreme Court in mid-July, a number of weeks after the Fianna Fail-Fine Gael-Green Party government was formed. 

The Supreme Court judge attended the “golfgate” event in Clifden, Co Galway, in August when members of the Oireachtas’ golf society gathered for a dinner organised in variance with Covid-19 rules.

He refused to resign over his handling of the incident despite a call from chief justice Frank Clarke to quit.

Last month, new legislation that would reform how judges are appointed in Ireland was approved for drafting by the government. 

The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill would establish a new commission to replace the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board. 

The proposal to reform the system comes after the controversy surrounding Woulfe and the Golfgate event. The government subsequently faced questions over how he came to be appointed to the Supreme Court last summer.

Opposition parties raised concerns about the selection process after it emerged in November that Cabinet was not told in July that a number of other judges had expressed interest in the vacancy on the Supreme Court before Woulfe was selected.

The former Attorney General’s name was the only one Justice Minister Helen McEntee put forward to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Green Party leader for approval, only three weeks after she was appointed as minister. 

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