JUDGE LOBBIED FG INSIDER FOR A PROMOTION
District Court judge wrote to Kenny’s new senator Billy Lawless asking for a ‘political’ favour
A SITTING District Court judge wrote to one of the Taoiseach’s newest senators three years ago to ask him for his help to secure a promotion in the judiciary.
Judge Mary Emer Larkin wrote to Billy Lawless – then a restaurateur in the US, now a senator – in 2013 asking for his help to be moved off the list of moveable judges, and be made a permanent judge in the Limerick district.
The letter, seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday, goes on to thank Fine Gael stalwart Mr Lawless for his prior help in securing her a seat on the bench in the first place in June
The decision to assign judges to District Court Areas is made by the Minister for Justice. I am advised that the appointment is a political decision. I would be most obliged if you would be so kind (again) to make a representation on my behalf.
‘We’re neighbours... I’ve known her all my life’
2012. A moveable judge is a judge who travels to different courts, or fills in as is needed in different areas, rather than being appointed to one specific geographic area.
In a formally headed letter dated February 2013 Judge Larkin says she has been advised that the move to a permanent district, seen by most in the legal profession as a promotion, ‘is a political decision’.
‘I would be most obliged if you would be so kind (again) to make a representation on my behalf,’ she writes to Mr Lawless.
Mr Lawless – who made a €1,000 donation to Galway West Fine Gael TD Brian Walsh in 2011 – this week confirmed to the MoS that after he received the letter he lobbied Deputy Walsh on Judge Larkin’s behalf. Mr Walsh confirmed this week that he passed on Mr Lawless’s representations to the Justice Minister, through his department.
The new senator also confirmed that he previously lobbied Mr Walsh in 2012, when Judge Larkin secured appointment to the bench.
The MoS understands that Mr Walsh also lobbied the then-justice minister Alan Shatter on behalf of solicitor Ms Larkin at that stage, just nine months previous.
On both the occasions these representations were made, Judge Larkin – a well-respected family law practitioner based in Gort, Co. Galway – received the appointments she was seeking.
Mr Lawless and Mr Walsh, both from Galway, are friends. Ms Larkin is also from Galway and was born in the same place as Mr Lawless.
Speaking to the MoS this week, Mr Lawless conceded he assisted Ms Larkin. ‘Mary Larkin and I grew up together, we’re neighbours, we went to Bushy Park [in Galway] school together, I’m sure we’re the same age,’ said Mr Lawless.
‘She lived literally a few hundred yards away from me. I’ve known her all my life. I never had much contact with her, she got married or whatever,’ he said.
The latest revelation comes after the MoS revealed the unknown personal connections between Enda Kenny and Mr Lawless, his surprise choice as one of his 11 Taoiseach’s nominations.
It also comes just two and a half weeks after Mr Kenny pledged reform in the way judges are appointed. He was speaking at the book for Dr Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s book The Politics Of Judicial Selection In Ireland.
At the launch Mr Kenny announced proposals for changes to the way judges are appointed, proposals included in the programme for government after Minister Shane Ross and his Independent Alliance sought them in negotiations. As such it is expected these revelations will prove a further embarrassment to Mr Kenny.
Applications for judicial vacancies are assessed by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, which presents government with a shortlist of suitable candidates.
The actual appointments are made by the President, at the suggestion of the Justice Minister.
The idea is that sole discretion for appointments would be taken away from the government but currently the board does not interview applicants or seek out suitable candidates. It has the power to do so but cites ‘practical difficulties’ preventing this. Effectively, therefore, it screens for suitability and competence but does not rate candidates according to merit.
Even though it has the discretion to send just a seven-name ‘shortlist’ to government, at times the list can be as many as 70 or 80, according to Dr Carroll’s research.
The extent to which Mr Kenny knew about Mr Lawless’s previous lobbying on behalf of the judge, or of the judge’s pleading with Mr Lawless, is unknown.
Mr Lawless said he did not contact the Taoiseach about the matter. But a spokesman for Mr Kenny – who this week launched a public relations offensive with a national newspaper interview and round table press conference – did not even reply to questions from the MoS about the appointment. These disclosures will attract further criticism of the appointment to the Seanad of Mr Lawless as one of the 11 chosen by the Taoiseach for the Upper House.
The new senator was described on the official notice of the Taoiseach’s nominees as an ‘advocate for Irish immigrants in the US’.
However, continuing revelations about Mr Lawless’s links to Fine Gael show that his appointment was a nakedly political one. Disquiet within the Fine Gael parliamentary party over his appointment will be heightened by his contacts with Judge Larkin. The Chicago restaurateur has courted further criticism with the revelation that he used his connections at the top of the Government to lobby for someone he’s known all his life to be appointed to the District Court.
In her letter Judge Larkin writes: ‘Dear Billy, I have to ask for your assistance again in connection with my new position.’
She explained that the assigned Judge for Co. Limerick had been unable to attend and that she, Judge Larkin, had taken her courts, and that the position is now vacant and open for application. Ms Larkin’s letter continues: ‘I trust you can be of assistance in the matter. I am ever so grateful for all you have done for me to date. It is quite wonderful to get a new job and “such a
job”. ‘I also have to say that I am enjoying the new challenges and experiences immensely.’
She concludes: ‘Thank you for your support and efforts on my behalf.’
Mr Lawless told the MoS this week: ‘When she was going for the judgeship I did ask Brian Walsh to see if he could put in a word for her.
‘As everybody does. I was not involved with Fine Gael at the time, in the sense. I’m not denying…I’m Fine Gael, yes. But I was not involved politically at the time.’
Mr Lawless is from the Dangan area of Galway and is close friends with former Galway West TD Brian Walsh. Mr Walsh retired from the Dáil just three weeks before the general election – having served a single five-year-term – due to ill health earlier this year. However, the pension he currently receives is based on a 10-year term as a TD, as it is assumed he would have been reelected were it not for his ill health.
Mr Lawless said: ‘I was a big supporter of Brian. Brian’s a personal friend of mine. John, his father before him, was a personal friend of mine, and Brian’s grandfather and my father were friends. So there is a long friendship there between the Walshes and the Lawlesses.’
The new senator went on: ‘I asked Brian if he could put in a word. Brian was up first to tell me, no matter what representation you make… sure listen the likes of TDs get representations every day so they do. They get representations on behalf of people. So then the public appointments people, nobody as far as I am aware, can influence them.’
Mr Lawless said Mr Walsh made a representation to then-justice minister Alan Shatter on his behalf.
‘I don’t even know who the minister for justice was at the time. I never met Alan Shatter, it is Alan isn’t it? I never met him, I never met the man,’ said Mr Lawless.
He said he did not capitalise on his close friendship with the Taoiseach to help Ms Larkin.
‘Of course I know Enda, I would not have discussed it with Enda. I know how sensitive these things are and any influence from the likes of…,’ he trailed off.
‘I understand it. People would always have associated me with Fine Gael. I have been around elections, I love elections and whatever. My last involvement, I was chairman of the Galway West constituency, I’m not sure if it was before I went for election or after. I honestly don’t know.’
Mr Lawless said his wife also socialises with Judge Larkin. ‘When Mary comes out here, my wife Anne goes out for lunch with her.’
Mr Walsh also confirmed that he received representations directly from Ms Larkin around the same time as she lobbied Mr Lawless for a permanent District Court position.
‘I received a number of representations for the appointment of judges throughout my time as a TD,’ said Mr Walsh. ‘Anything that came through to me I would have passed on the representations to the relevant department. It is something that is quite frequently done.
‘I got, over the five years I was a TD, I got over a dozen requests for these from individual solicitors themselves, or for people who knew solicitors or senior counsel. There was a standard thing that went in, they had to go through an appointments [process]. If they got through the appointments commission, the government would have decided who to appoint and that.
‘I do recall receiving representations on in excess of a dozen applications and I do, at the time, remember receiving representations in respect of Mary Larkin at the time. She was obviously successful,’ said Mr Walsh.
Mr Lawless was on crutches at Leinster House on Wednesday when he took his seat in the Seanad. He told the MoS he is awaiting a hip replacement.
He was accompanied in the Dáil Visitors’ Bar by Brian Walsh and a number of Galway- based Fine Gael politicians including former mayor Pádraic Conneely.
Judge Larkin did not take the opportunity to reply to questions about the disclosures, but the Courts Service confirmed receipt of the inquiries from the MoS.
The Government Information Service, which deals with press queries for the Taoiseach, did not reply to questions from the MoS.
The Department of Justice did not reply to questions from the MoS.
‘I did ask… to put in a word for her’ ‘My wife goes out for lunch with her’
THE cornerstone of democracy is judicial independence. Without a fully autonomous judiciary, society risks descending into despotism. Only when our judges are free of political persuasion can they uphold the rule of law as something to which we must all subscribe.
The judiciary cannot be in debt – either personally or professionally – to what Plato called the political ‘guardians’. It is our judges who ‘guard the guardians’ and must, therefore, ensure that even the lawmakers are equal before the law.
However, judicial appointments have traditionally been made at the sole discretion of the government. This is not to say that, once appointed, judges cannot be totally impartial. Our judiciary has a noble history of rising above the political fray – but it would be in everyone’s best interest if judicial selection were made by a completely independent body.
The case for such a body will surely be strengthened by our revelation today that a sitting district court judge sought promotion in the judiciary by lobbying one of Enda Kenny’s recent appointees to the Seanad. In a letter from 2013, which we reproduce, Judge Mary Emer Larkin asked Billy Lawless for help in securing a position as permanent judge in the Limerick district.
Last week, Senator Lawless admitted to this newspaper that he and the judge are good friends, and that he did ask Fine Gael TD Brian Walsh to ‘put in a word for her’ with the then minister Alan Shatter.
Both Judge Larkin and Senator Lawless have exemplary track records. However, that a judge felt the need to lobby for a position which, as she wrote, was ‘a political decision’, highlights the urgency of reforming the judicial appointments process. Only then can we ensure the judiciary can truly guard the guardians.