TDs seek Opposition support in bid to force Woulfe out of office

A MOTION to impeach Supreme Court j udge Séamus Woulfe will be tabled in the Dáil this week.

RISE and People Before Profit TDs Paul Murphy and Bríd Smith will place the motion either tomorrow or Thursday to have Mr Woulfe removed from office.

It would be the first time a sitting judge has been forced out of his post. However, it is expected the motion will be easily defeated – with the Government and larg

‘No credible basis for impeachment’

est Opposition party Sinn Féin already indicating they will not support the motion either.

Mr Murphy will speak with the Ceann Comhairle today to discuss the motion. In an email to all of the Opposition party leaders last night, Mr Murphy urged them to back the motion.

‘The vote… is not a vote in relation to whether Mr Justice Woulfe should be removed or not. Instead, it is a vote on whether to reject our motion or adjourn the debate on it and begin a process to consider that question,’ he said. If the motion is passed, a select committee would be established to examine the evidence, with the Oireachtas then voting on whether to remove the judge or not.

The Government has already indicated it would vote down any motion to impeach Mr Woulfe.

It is also unclear if Mr Murphy has the full support of his party colleagues, who have also questioned the wisdom of proceeding with the motion.

The leader of the largest Opposition party, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, last week told her party colleagues that there is ‘no credible basis for the impeachment of Séamus Woulfe’ – noting that the process could ‘tie the

Oireachtas up in legal knots for a prolonged period of time’.

Sinn Féin chief whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told the Irish Daily Mail the whip would be applied to any vote on the issue.

‘We’re more focused on looking at the process of how Mr Woulfe was appointed,’ he added.

The Opposition are continuing to seek to have Dáil time set aside so that Minister for Justice Helen McEntee can take questions and provide answers on the appointment process by which former attorney general and longtime Fine Gael supporter Mr Woulfe was chosen to be a Supreme Court judge.

It emerged earlier this month that three sitting judges applied for the role, but just one name was brought to Cabinet.

Mr Justice Woulfe was appointed in July in the weeks after the formation of the current Government. He served as attorney general in the previous government and is a qualified barrister but has never before practised as a judge.

The Judicial Appointments Advisory Board found that he was a ‘suitable’ candidate for the role.

Ms McEntee brought his name alone to Cabinet, which is normal procedure, where it was approved by Cabinet.

Just a month after his appointment, Judge Woulfe became embroiled in scandal by attending the ‘Golfgate’ dinner in Clifden, Co. Galway, in breach of Covid regulations, with 80 other highprofile individuals.

In the aftermath of a report into his attendance at the dinner, Chief Justice Frank Clarke advised Judge Woulfe to resign, having not even sat for a case yet.

Mr Woulfe has refused to do so, which has prompted the impeachment motion this week.

‘Suitable’ candidate for the role