The Chairperson of the Free Legal Advice Centre has condemned the recent attack on judges by Minister for Transport Shane Ross as a series of "Trumped-up charges".
Peter Ward, who is a senior barrister, said it can only erode public confidence in an independent pillar of Government - on which marginalised citizens have frequently depended to vindicate their rights.
In a speech to be delivered this evening, Mr Ward recalls that in a radio interview last month Shane Ross alleged that the judiciary had attempted to resist reform of judicial appointments.
Mr Ross added that the judiciary are leading "charmed lives" and that for decades they had been fighting change from within a "protected citadel".
However, FLAC's chairperson notes that judges deal with all the realities - and the greatest difficulties - that befall people here.
He says FLAC has won court battles on such issues as social welfare recipients' rights to fuel vouchers and on women's rights to equal treatment under the social welfare code.
Mr Ward says marginalised citizens have frequently depended on judges to vindicate their rights and that the judiciary has had to address the yawning legal gaps left by the failure of politicians to legislate on important, sensitive and difficult issues.
He criticizes Mr Ross's colleagues in Government - and in the Independent Alliance - for their apparent underestimation of the very serious problem he has created.
