Woulfe stand-off leaves Supreme Court in limbo
‘Golfgate’ judge said to be digging his heels in to retain key post
THE Supreme Court may have to operate without one of its eight sitting judges for an indefinable period, until an agreement is brokered between Séamus Woulfe and Chief Justice Frank Clarke.
Courtesy of the appointment of Mr Woulfe, the court currently has a full complement of eight judges, two ex officio judges and the Chief Justice.
However, Mr Woulfe – who was one of the figures at the centre of the ‘Golfgate’ scandal – has yet to hear a single case.
Friends now believe Judge Woulfe has made a final decision on his future and intends to dig his heels in and remain on the Supreme Court benches.
The judge’s future is expected to be decided once his serially postponed meeting with Mr Clarke has taken place.
However, one source warned that ‘it could be some time until that meeting with Clarke occurs’, adding: ‘Justice Woulfe is in a state of genuine shock over how his own turned on him.’
Judge Woulfe, they said, ‘thought these judges were his colleagues and then they turned on him as if he was some sort of defendant’.
The Supreme Court judge is also believed to be deeply hurt about being ‘ abandoned by his former political sponsors’.
One source noted: ‘He thought they were his friends too and then they turned on him. He helped them, advised them, got them out of scrapes and then this.’
The consequence, one source said, was that ‘initially, he was a little like Bishop Brennan after Ted did that fateful deed’. The source added: ‘He is in shock, but the next stage is anger and he is getting there very quickly.’
And another source claimed: ‘He is now at the anger stage. He is not in the mood for budging.
‘Don’t forget that between pay and pensions, there i s up to €5million at stake.’
The j udge’s view, one l egal insider said, ‘is that he is not going to be carved up by some southside public school mafia’.
The insider added: ‘ He has no intention of ending up like Tommy in Goodfellas. We had a problem. He’s gone... He has had the inquiry, the nice retired Supreme Court judge cleared him. Now they are trying to impose double jeopardy. He won’t have it.’
And one legal grandee said: ‘It is simple: if he is to go, they have to make him an offer he cannot refuse. If they don’t, he stays whether he hears cases or not.’
Judge Woulfe will, they said, ‘move at his own pace from now on’.
To date, four meetings between Judge Woulfe and Chief Justice Mr Clarke have been cancelled, the most recent because of ‘a cogent medical report to the effect that [Mr Woulfe] is not in a position to take part in the resolution process at this time’.
The Chief Justice said he was still ‘committed to bringing the process to a conclusion as early as it is possible’. The absence of any immediate timeline will accentuate the growing unease across Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the continuing failure of the judiciary to resolve the ‘Woulfe problem’. To date, given his strong Fine Gael background, the judge has been a greater source of unease to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
However, unhappiness is also growing in Fianna Fáil, with one source noting: ‘It started as a Fine Gael problem, but our concern is that, if unresolved, their problem will become our problem too.’
Fine Gael, they added, ‘need to sort out their turbulent former Attorney General [Judge Woulfe] and they need to do it swiftly’.
Sympathy with Judge Woulfe’s claims of mistreatment is slim, with one Fianna Fáil minister saying: ‘Compared to [former agriculture minister] Dara Calleary [who lost the role over Golfgate], tea and biscuits and a chat with Justice Susan Denham is hardly oppressive treatment.’
‘Hardly oppressive treatment’