Court of Appeal Act 2014

Establishment and constitution of Court of Appeal

6. The Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 1:

1A. (1) On the establishment day, the Court of Appeal, referred to in paragraph ii of Article 34.2 of the Constitution as An Chúirt Achomhairc (the Court of Appeal), shall stand established.

(2) The Court of Appeal shall be constituted of the following judges:

(a) the president thereof, who shall be styled ‘Uachtarán na Cúirte Achomhairc’ (‘President of the Court of Appeal’);

(b) not more than 9 ordinary judges, each of whom shall be styled ‘Breitheamh den Chúirt Achomhairc’ (‘Judge of the Court of Appeal’).

(3) The Chief Justice and the President of the High Court shall be ex officio additional judges of the Court of Appeal.

(4) The President of the Court of Appeal shall be ex officio an additional judge of the Supreme Court and of the High Court.

(5) Where, owing to the illness of a judge of the Court of Appeal or for any other reason, a sufficient number of judges of the Court of Appeal is not available for the transaction of the business of that Court or, on account of the volume of business to be transacted in the Court of Appeal or for any other reason arising from the state of business in that Court, it is expedient to increase temporarily the number of judges available for the purposes of the Court of Appeal—

(a) the President of the Court of Appeal may, having consulted with the President of the High Court, request any ordinary judge of the High Court, or

(b) the Chief Justice, at the request of the President of the Court of Appeal, may request any ordinary judge of the Supreme Court,

to sit in the Court of Appeal as an additional judge thereof, and every ordinary judge of the High Court or the Supreme Court, as the case may be, so requested shall sit in the Court of Appeal.

(6) Whenever an ordinary judge of—

(a) the High Court, or

(b) the Supreme Court,

sits in the Court of Appeal in pursuance of subsection (5), he or she shall be an additional judge of the Court of Appeal for all the purposes of that Court.

(7) In this section ‘the establishment day’ has the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Court of Appeal Act 2014. ”.