The Twenty-ninth Amendment to the Constitution (Judges' Remuneration) Bill 2011

Polling for the referendum took place on Thursday 27 October 2011. On 5 September 2011 the minister appointed a Referendum Commission for the 29th amendment, as required by the Referendum Act 1998.

The Twenty-ninth Amendment to the Constitution (Judges' Remuneration) Bill 2011 proposed to make the following changes to the Constitution:

At present, Article 35.5 of the Constitution states:

“The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office.”

It is proposed to replace this with the following wording:

5 1° The remuneration of judges shall not be reduced during their continuance in office save in accordance with this section.

  2° The remuneration of judges is subject to the imposition of taxes, levies or other charges that are imposed by law on persons generally or persons belonging to a particular class.

  3° Where, before or after the enactment of this section, reductions have been or are made by law to the remuneration of persons belonging to classes of persons whose remuneration is paid out of public money and such law states that those reductions are in the public interest, provision may also be made by law to make proportionate reductions to the remuneration of judges.

The full text of the Bill can be downloaded here (PDF - 110K). Further information on the passage of this Bill through the Oireachtas can be found here.