The Chief Justice has warned that significant challenges lie ahead for the Irish courts in the context of Brexit.
In a speech to mark the opening of the new legal year, Mr Justice Frank Clarke said there seemed to be little greater clarity at this stage as to the precise terms on which the UK will leave the EU, since he briefly mentioned the issue in his speech last year.
Mr Justice Clarke said after Brexit, Ireland will become the leading common law jurisdiction within the European Union. And he said it was highly likely Ireland would be called on to play a much greater role in the European organisations representing Supreme Courts.
He said these bodies are regularly consulted by the European Commission and other institutions and can influence the laws and practices emanating from Brussels.
The Chief Justice said there was a significant risk of unintended consequences if EU laws were made without a real input from the common law countries.
The UK had played a significant role in that regard but a particular burden would now fall on Ireland.
The Chief Justice repeated that access to justice was a key challenge facing the Irish legal system.
He said not all of the problems relating to this had solutions within the courts. But he said the courts could make sure their procedures were modern and accessible.
He said the High Court President, Mr Justice Peter Kelly was chairing a committee reviewing the civil justice system which would report late next year or early 2020.
And he hoped when its recommendations were considered and implemented, there would be an up to date, modern and fit for purpose procedural framework within which civil litigation in Ireland could be conducted.
He also said the project to enable all applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court to be conducted online had progressed substantially and it was hoped to implement this system from the beginning of next year.
He also hoped to engage with Government to secure funding necessary to rebuild the current IT system used by the courts.
He said it was likely to be three to four years before all the different strands came together. But the Chief Justice said, it would be a fitting contribution from the courts to the celebration of 100 years of independence if by then, the courts system has a modern, up to date and fit for purpose structure.
Mr Justice Clarke said access to justice also related to the ease with which the public could know what was going on in the courts.
He said it was important the courts were as open as they could be so the public could understand what went on and why.
He noted that last year cameras had been allowed into the Supreme Court for the first time to film judgments. And he said discussions had commenced to allow the filming and transmission of legal arguments in the court.
The judge said he considered the sitting of the court outside Dublin was an important symbol of the fact that the Supreme Court was for all of Ireland.
He said an annual sitting outside of the capital was his aspiration and it was hoped the court would sit next year in Galway.
He said the courts service website was being revamped.
The Supreme Court itself is also due to publish its own annual report each year and he welcomed the decision of academic lawyers to promote an annual conference to discuss the most important legal cases decided by the court. The first such conference will take place on 6 October.
Mr Justice Clarke also said flexible guidelines in the areas of sentencing and personal injury cases had the potential to provide greater assurance to the public about consistency and the proper calibration of awards.
He said he was more than happy that there should be discussions about how proposals to introduce guidelines might be progressed.
