The media broke the story in 1999 and the government responded to the controversy by asking the Chief Justice to make a report, which criticised the conduct of both judges, who each resigned after initially stating they would not.
[4] The government wanted to expedite passage of all four bills through the Oireachtas to have simultaneous referendums on 7 June, before the summer holidays.
The Twenty-second Amendment bill passed its second reading on 1 May 2001, and the committee stage was scheduled for the following day.
[5] Overnight, John O'Donoghue, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, tabled 14 amendments to the bill, a procedure which the opposition condemned as cavalier; in the absence of cross-party support the government withdrew the bill from the Order Paper.
[8] In 2010, the Government announced the Judicial Council Bill 2010, which aimed to address the same issues without amending the Constitution.