Ireland’s top judge envious of Scotland’s ‘much more sophisticated’ judicial training

Ireland's top judge envious of Scotland's 'much more sophisticated' judicial training

Ireland’s top judge has said judicial training in Scotland is “much more sophisticated” than that offered to the Irish judiciary.

The Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, told a seminar at NUI Galway that it was “a source of some embarrassment” to him that some Irish judges had to go to Scotland to receive training, the Irish Independent reports.

The judge, who presides over Ireland’s highest court, said: “Scotland, a jurisdiction broadly of our own size and with a similar financial clout, had a much more sophisticated system of training than anything we could offer, thus requiring Irish judges to obtain much of their training abroad.”

He blamed cutbacks for Ireland’s failure to match up to Scotland and said Ireland’s current budget of €300,000 for judicial training should be quadrupled to provide for a “proper training programme”.

Yesterday’s seminar was hosted by Charles O’Mahony, head of NUI Galway School of Law, and Professor Siobhán Mullally, director of NUI Galway Irish Centre for Human Rights.

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