Ann O'Loughlin
Two High Court judges have been nominated by the Government for appointment as judges of the Court of Appeal.
Ms Justice Caroline Costello and Ms Justice Isabel Kennedy will replace Mr Justice Gerard Hogan who is taking up a position as Advocate General on the Court of Justice of the EU and Mr Justice John Hedigan, who is retiring.
The latest nominations mean there will be four female and six male judges on the Court of Appeal.
Ms Justice Costello, who was called to the Bar in 1988, became senior counsel in 2010 and was appointed to the HIgh Court in 2014, had been managing the High Court chancery and bankruptcy lists and also heard many commercial cases.
Ms Justice Kennedy, a senior counsel since 2003, had an extensive practice in criminal law before being appointed as a High Court judge in 2015. She was chairwoman of the Referendum Commission for the May referendum on the Eighth Amendment.
The nominations come a week after the Government nominated Garrett Simons SC, a senior barrister with particular experience in planning and environmental law, for appointment as a judge of the High Court.
It also emerged today that Judge Eugene Regan, an Irish judge on the CJEU, has become the first Irish judge to be elected president of one of the chambers of that court.
