Seán Duggan,
Director,
Judicial Appointments Commission,
Suite 501, The Capel Building,
Mary’s Abbey,
Dublin 7
30 March 2026
Re: Diversity Statement Consultation
Director Duggan, a chara,
As you will be aware, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is both the ‘A’ status National Human Rights Institution and the National Equality Body for Ireland, established under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. We are the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for Ireland under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the independent National Rapporteur on the Trafficking of Human Beings; and will be assigned the role of the Co-ordinating National Preventive Mechanism under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, pending ratification. Alongside Northern Ireland’s national human rights and equality bodies, we have a mandate to consider and report on equality and rights issues with an island of Ireland dimension. We also have legal powers under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, and a fundamental rights role in relation to the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.
Access to justice is a priority area of focus for the Commission, and our Strategy Statement 2025-2027 commits us to strengthen access to justice by working with rights holders and duty bearers. We welcome the invitation to provide our observations on the development of a Diversity Statement. We acknowledge the Judicial Appointments Commission’s preparatory work on the Diversity Statement as outlined in the consultation document which has been helpful for us in preparing our observations. As you will be aware, we provided observations on the General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and commented specifically on the importance of a diverse judiciary.1 In our submission, we highlighted that from a rule of law perspective, the judiciary should be representative of the diverse nature of Irish society and that a diverse judiciary is important for democratic legitimacy, demonstrating equal opportunity and fair, building public confidence and trust, providing role models for structurally vulnerable groups, and bringing a broader range of perspectives.
Our Strategy Statement also commits us to support the development of capacity within public bodies to meet their Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, monitor implementation, and support compliance. The Public Sector Duty is a key consideration in examining the appointments process of the judiciary to ensure you have regard to, in the performance of your functions, the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and protect the human rights of your members, staff and persons to whom you provides services.2
Equality and human rights proofed appointments processes are a key measure in ensuring a judiciary that is reflective of the diversity within Irish society. Increased representation of structurally vulnerable groups in the judicial profession is important for structurally vulnerable group’s access and experience of the legal system. It is welcome that you are considering the barriers affecting achieving a diverse judiciary at the different stages from access to undergraduate education to appointment to the judiciary. In examining the judicial appointments process, we would like to draw specific attention to two Commission funded research reports concerning access to justice for structurally vulnerable groups.3 Both reports offer concrete recommendations to address barriers to accessing the judiciary and the wider legal profession for Travellers and disabled people.
The appendix below sets out our observations on the understanding of understanding of diversity, barriers to diversity, barriers to the judiciary and legal profession, barriers faced by specific groups, equality data, and good practices in other jurisdictions.
We are available to provide further assistance to the Judicial Appointments Commission in developing the Diversity Statement, and I and the IHREC team are available to meet with you, if requested.
Le dea-mhéin,
Deirdre Malone
Director
Appendix
Understanding of diversity
In our observations on the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, we had called for the legislation to define the term diversity and to, at a minimum, refer to the following equality grounds – age, civil status, disability, family status, gender, ethnicity, including membership of the Traveller community, religious belief, sexual orientation and socio-economic status.4 The concept of diversity should also recognise intersectional identities. As a definition of diversity was not included in the legislation, it is important for the Diversity Statement to define diversity.
Barriers to accessing education
As discussed above, it is welcome that you are considering barriers to accessing education as pathways to the legal profession and the judiciary for structurally vulnerable groups have to be analysed in the wider context of barriers to accessing further and higher education in Ireland which lead to poor participation rates and educational outcomes.5 It will be important to consider the perspective and experiences of those who cannot access the legal profession or legal studies in developing the Diversity Statement.
Access to further and higher education is impacted by lack of finance, lack of clarity on educational and financial supports, insufficient entry pathways, limited knowledge of the application process, and limited awareness of alternative routes to education. Such exclusion can result in multi-generational unemployment, poor health and poverty. There is a need for additional integrated supports to structurally vulnerable groups to increase access to further and higher education, including access to legal practitioner education and training. These supports need to involve pro-active outreach with under-represented communities and be available as early as feasible in the professional journey to legal practice including school career guidance and opportunities for mature entrants.
Barriers to the judiciary and legal profession
We welcome the recent research and reports from the Legal Services Regulatory Authority to address barriers to entry to the legal professions and to increase diversity.6The Authority’s research findings report summarises key structural barriers and challenges facing early career solicitors and barristers. The Diversity Statement should take into account the work of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority including their Breaking Down Barriers reports and their Annual Reports on Admission Policies of Legal Professions.
We would also highlight the importance of examining the research report ‘Judicial Selection Procedures in Ireland’7 due to the researchers consideration of how to best ensure the values of both diversity and merit in judicial appointments.8 The research on the educational background of the Irish Supreme Court since its establishment in 19249 may also be informative in preparing the Diversity Statement as it highlights the socio-economic disparity in the membership of the Supreme Court.
Barriers faced by specific groups
Women
In our submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, we called for increased women representation in the judiciary and legal profession at senior levels.10 The Legal Services Regulator Authority have found several barriers for women’s entry into the barrister profession; these include childcare, absence of maternity leave and supports as a self-employed professional, deferral of family planning, discrimination, and low remuneration in early career.11 We have called for measures which address barriers to diversity in the legal profession be gender and equality proofed, and progressed as a matter of priority.12 We also recommended the adoption of measures to encourage flexible hours, flexi-time job sharing, part-time work, shorter hours, remote working, term-time working in solicitor firms.13
Disabled people
In December 2024, we released our first publication under our mandate as the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘UNCRPD’).14 The study examined the implementation of the Convention with regards to access to justice for disabled people in Ireland. The study was accompanied by a policy brief with our recommendations to those in the justice system on realising the rights of disabled people. The research identified concerns regarding lack of diversity within the legal professions and judiciary.15 We recommended that the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, the Bar of Ireland, the Law Society, Kings Inns and Department of Justice take steps to increase diversity within the legal professions by implementing support schemes that offer financial assistance and mentorship to disabled legal professionals, address workforce culture and make visible the diversity profile of the profession.16
Travellers
In 2022, our funded research report was published concerning the relationship between Travellers and the criminal justice system.17 Among the recommendations of the report is a mentoring programme for all new Traveller entrants to the legal profession, the funding of preparatory courses to complete FE1 exams or to sit the examinations for the Bar Council of Ireland, and the payment of all Travellers trainees across the legal profession.18 The authors of the report emphasised the need for the introduction of training on cultural competency, antiracism and equality across the legal system.19 This training should specifically address the experiences and needs of Travellers. There should be a publicly available register of legal practitioners who have completed anti-racism, equality, and cultural competency training specific to Travellers. The authors also recommended for the annual publication of data within the legal system for the recruitment, hiring and promotion of underrepresented groups, particularly Irish Travellers, disaggregated by ethnicity and gender.20
Equality Data
Monitoring and using an evidence-based approach to diversity will allow the Judicial Appointments Commission to identify and target gaps within the appointments process. The availability of disaggregated equality data is central to a human rights and equality approach to diversifying the judiciary appointments process that reflects today’s society.21 However, a persistent challenge in Ireland is the gaps in available disaggregated data including with regards to the makeup of the judiciary. In early 2026, the National Equality Data Strategy 2026-203122 was launched which will improve the collection, disaggregation, and use of equality data. We are a member of the Equality Data Strategy Working Group that supported the development of the Strategy.
The Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission monitor diversity at key stages within the recruitment process, “Equity monitoring occurs at application, shortlisting and appointment stages.”23 Monitoring across the entirety of the recruitment process not just when the appointment has been made will enable the Judicial Appointments Commission to assess its process and if there are gaps within its applications, shortlisting or final appointment stages in order to accurately reflect the diversity of the State.
We emphasise the importance of Article 16 of the EU Directives on Standards for Equality Bodies which provides that EU Member States shall ensure that equality bodies, such as IHREC, are able to access statistics related to the rights and obligations derived from EU Equality Directives.24 We are allowed to make recommendations on which data is to be collected in relation to the rights and obligations derived from EU Equality Directives to public and private entities including public authorities, the social partners, companies and civil society organisations.
Practices in other jurisdictions
The practices in other common law jurisdictions including Northern Ireland, England and Wales, Scotland, and Canada should be considered in developing the Diversity Statement.25 There are common practices that are used to support diversity within the Judiciary including creating and implementing a strategy or framework that supports diversity, setting clear objectives, monitoring of data collected and increased targeted engagement all while maintaining the principle of appointment on merit.
Footnotes
1IHREC, Submission to the Minister for Justice on the General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission (April 2021).
2IHREC, Implementing the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty: Guidance for Public Bodies - Second Edition (2024).
3Charles O’Mahony, Access to Justice: A Baseline Study of Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2024); Sindy Joyce, Olive O’Reilly, Margaret O’Brien, David Joyce, Jennifer Schweppe and Amanda Haynes, Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (European Centre for the Study of Hate, 2022).
4IHREC, Submission to the Minister for Justice on the General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission (April 2021) p. 26.
5Detailed in IHREC, Ireland and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Ireland’s fourth periodic report (2024) pp. 140-152.
6Legal Services Regulatory Authority, LSRA reports identify entry and early career barriers and propose reforms to open up access to legal professions and increase diversity (2022-2025).
7Professor Laura Cahillane and Dr Carol Lynch, Judicial Selection Procedures in Ireland (2024). Research supported by the Irish Research Council and Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
8Professor Laura Cahillane and Dr Carol Lynch, Judicial Selection Procedures in Ireland’(2024) p.4
9Dr James Rooney, Judges, Education and Class in Ireland’(2023)
10IHREC, Ireland and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (2025) pp. 81-83.
11Legal Services Regulatory Authority, LSRA reports identify entry and early career barriers and propose reforms to open up access to legal professions and increase diversity (2022-2025).
12IHREC, Ireland and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (2025) p. 83.
13IHREC, Submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality (March 2020) p. 18.
14Charles O’Mahony, Access to Justice: A Baseline Study of Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2024).
15Specific barriers described in the research findings include limitations with or lack of accommodations (ISL interpretation for example) and financial barriers (the cost of legal training, when compounded by the additional expense of necessary support for disabled people, was described as nearly prohibitive); Charles O’Mahony, Access to Justice: A Baseline Study of Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2024) pp. 119-120.
16IHREC, Access to Justice: Implementation of Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities – Policy Brief (2024) p. 45.
17Sindy Joyce, Olive O’Reilly, Margaret O’Brien, David Joyce, Jennifer Schweppe and Amanda Haynes, Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (European Centre for the Study of Hate, 2022).
18Sindy Joyce, Olive O’Reilly, Margaret O’Brien, David Joyce, Jennifer Schweppe and Amanda Haynes, Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (European Centre for the Study of Hate, 2022) p. 135.
19Sindy Joyce, Olive O’Reilly, Margaret O’Brien, David Joyce, Jennifer Schweppe and Amanda Haynes, Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (European Centre for the Study of Hate, 2022) p. 134.
20Sindy Joyce, Olive O’Reilly, Margaret O’Brien, David Joyce, Jennifer Schweppe and Amanda Haynes, Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (European Centre for the Study of Hate, 2022) p. 133.
21In line with the EU Guidelines on improving the collection and use of equality data, to ensure comprehensiveness of data, ‘(d)ata collectors and data users need multiple and complementary sources of equality data to enable evidence-based policy-making, as well as to get a full picture of the reality of equality and non-discrimination on the ground’. Further they should apply quality criteria including: consistency, clarity, timeliness, punctuality, accuracy, continuity, objectivity, relevance, comparability and transparency. European Commission High Level Group on Non-discrimination, Equality and Diversity - Subgroup on Equality Data, Guidelines on improving the collection and use of equality data (2018). See also European Commission High Level Group on Non-discrimination, Equality and Diversity - Subgroup on Equality Data, Guidance Note on the National Implementation of the Equality Data Guidelines (2024).
22Government of Ireland, Equality Data Strategy (2026-2031)
23Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission, Equality and Diversity, Justice (NI) Act 2002
24See European Union, Standards for equality bodies in the field of equal treatment and equal opportunities.
25IHREC, Submission to the Minister for Justice on the General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission (April 2021) p. 25. The research ‘Judicial Selection Procedures in Ireland’ includes an overview of selection processes across common law jurisdictions: Professor Laura Cahillane and Dr Carol Lynch, Judicial Selection Procedures in Ireland (2024).