187.— The Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961 is amended—

(a) in section 4(2)—

(i) in paragraph (a), by deleting “and”,

(ii) in paragraph (b), by deleting “Oireachtas.” and substituting “Oireachtas, and”, and

(iii) by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (b):

“(c) such number of specialist judges (each of whom shall be styled “Sainbhreitheamh den Chúirt Chuarda” (“Specialist Judge of the Circuit Court”)) as may from time to time be fixed by Act of the Oireachtas.”,

(b) in section 6(1)(a), by deleting “President of the Circuit Court or ordinary judge of the Circuit Court” and substituting “President of the Circuit Court, ordinary judge of the Circuit Court or specialist judge of the Circuit Court”, and

(c) in section 6A (inserted by section 12 of the Courts and Court Officers Act 2002), by substituting the following for subsection (1):

“(1) Where a judicial office within the meaning of section 6 of this Act is vacated by a person in accordance with subsection (3) of that section, the person shall complete the hearing of any case or cases that have been partly heard by the person in the Court in which the judicial office is vacated if, at the request of the President of that Court—

(a) in case the person is appointed to the office of Chief Justice, President of the High Court or President of the Circuit Court, he or she considers it appropriate to do so, or

(b) in case the person is appointed to the office of—

(i) ordinary judge of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice requests the person to do so,

(ii) ordinary judge of the High Court, the President of the High Court requests the person to do so, or

(iii) ordinary judge of the Circuit Court or specialist judge of the Circuit Court, the President of the Circuit Court requests the person to do so.”.