Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD today accused the Attorney General of inappropriate and gross interference in legislative and judicial matters that he has no place commenting on.<\/p>\n
The Dublin north west TD said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe job of the chief law officer of the state is to advise the government \u2013 not to weigh in with his personal opinions in public. The Attorney General has over-stepped the line in relation to the separation of powers with his remarks on both the Judicial Appointments Bill and the forthcoming Supreme Court ruling in the case by Angela Kerins against the Public Accounts Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AG\u2019s interventions are entirely shocking and profoundly disturbing \u2013 they amount to gross interference in matters that are appropriately the responsibility of the legislature and the judiciary.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegislators are elected to make laws and if the Attorney General has concerns that opposition amendments to the judicial appointments bill were unconstitutional then he should raise these at cabinet \u2013 not at a public event and in the presence of journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Shortall added:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s reportedly \u2018off the record\u2019 prediction that the Supreme Court would uphold the High Court\u2019s dismissal of Ms Kerins\u2019 case against PAC is also very troubling \u2013 particularly given that the office of the Attorney General is a named respondent in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taoiseach needs to come before the D\u00e1il and tell us whether he finds the Attorney General\u2019s comments acceptable or appropriate. Bizarrely, in this instance the Taoiseach has been put in a position where he cannot call upon the advice of the Attorney General given that Mr Woulfe\u2019s public comments have compromised his constitutional role.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
25 March 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD today accused the Attorney General of inappropriate and gross interference in legislative and judicial matters that he has no place commenting on. The Dublin north west TD said: \u201cThe job of the chief law officer of the state is to advise the government \u2013 not to weigh in with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,264],"tags":[14,341,70],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall","tag-attorney-general","tag-pac","tag-roisin-shortall-td"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n