193.— The Courts Act 1977 is amended by inserting the following after section 2:

“Assignment of specialist judges of Circuit Court to circuits.

2A.— (1) Section 2 shall not apply to the assignment to a circuit of a specialist judge of the Circuit Court.

(2) Where a specialist judge of the Circuit Court is appointed, the Government shall permanently assign him or her to one or more than one circuit.

(3) Any specialist judge of the Circuit Court who is permanently assigned to a particular circuit may at any time, if he or she so consents but not otherwise, be transferred by the Government to another circuit and shall upon such transfer become and be permanently assigned to that other circuit in lieu of the first-mentioned circuit.

(4) Where a specialist judge of the Circuit Court is permanently assigned to a circuit, the Government, at his or her request, may, if they think fit, terminate his or her permanent assignment to that circuit and the judge may at any time thereafter be permanently assigned by the Government to any other circuit.

(5) Where—

(a) a specialist judge of the Circuit Court is permanently assigned to two or more circuits, and

(b) his or her permanent assignment to one of those circuits ceases under subsection (3) or (4),

nothing in those subsections shall terminate or affect his or her permanent assignment to the circuit or circuits not referred to in paragraph (b) or deprive or relieve him or her of any of the privileges, powers and duties vested in or imposed on him or her by virtue of such permanent assignment.

(6) More than one specialist judge of the Circuit Court may be assigned to the same circuit, whether by operation of this section or section 10(3) of the Courts of Justice Act 1947, or both.”.