In some ways Frances Fitzgerald is an unlikely choice to become a Minister for Justice & Equality”Š—”Šand certainly the job will present phenomenal challenges. For starters, on a fundamental level, she is now personally responsible for the bulk of legislation produced by government”Š—”Ša striking challenge for someone whose legislative success in the last three years amounts to three Acts, and a referendum on children’s rights which still hasn’t taken legal effect because of a dispute over a biased election booklet produced by her Department.

In some sense, she has perhaps been entrusted with the Justice job because it comes hand-in-hand with the Equality brief. Fitzgerald, a social worker by profession, was perhaps the most liberal Fine Gael member of cabinet after Shatter himself, and entered the Dáil as the incumbent chairman of the National Women’s Council of Ireland.

But if ever a minister would have a baptism of fire, it is Fitzgerald”Š—”Šwho has any number of issues to deal with in the 24 months before a new minister may arrive:

1. She will have to find peace with the solicitors and barristers, who had openly challenged Shatter’s plans to overhaul the legal profession.
2. She will need to decide whether to continue Shatter’s drive for a ‘one-stop-shop’ structure for solicitors and barristers to work in the same practice”Š—”Šespecially given how this may have been driven by Shatter’s own professional experience”Š—”Šin the face of Labour’s open opposition.
3. She will have to flesh out the Court of Appeal Bill”Š—”Špresumably at some stage in the next few months”Š—”Što make sure that last year’s referendum takes practical effect by the autumn, as her predecessor had promised.
4. She will have to preside over the first ever open recruitment process for a Garda Commissioner, and may possibly have to tell the acting Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan that her previous status, as Deputy Commissioner for Operations in a period condemned by Guerin, rules her out of the running.
5. She will have to win over her cabinet colleagues”Š—”Šone of whom, Leo Varadkar, today openly claimed her new Department was not fit for purpose.
6. She will have to rebuild relationships with the various Garda associations, almost all of whom had strained their ties with Shatter in the last three years.
7. She will have to rebuild Garda morale, at a time when the force is still getting to grips with lesser resources, fewer stations, and fewer members.
8. She will have to face the consequences of Nial Fennelly’s Commission of Inquiry into the systematic illegal taping of phone calls in Garda stations for decades.
9. She will have to deal with the findings of Justice John Cooke’s report into alleged bugging of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman headquarters”Š—”Šdue in the next few days.
10. She will have to deal with the ultimate findings of the Commission being set up to investigate Maurice McCabe’s allegations, and carefully apportion blame between her own surviving senior civil servants and the predecessor she supported until the very end of his tumultuous tenure.
11. She will need to examine the Personal Insolvency Act and determine whether it’s effectively fit for purpose, given that the biggest single financial burden on many people”Š—”Šthe cost of serving a mortgage for a house they can no longer afford”Š—”Šis also proving the single biggest barrier to entering the system.
12. She will have to be happy to do all of this work as an effective ward of court”Š—”Šbringing all of her ideas through a Cabinet Sub-Committee on Justice Reform which was set up almost specifically to give Labour great supervision of Shatter’s work.
13. She will have to decide whether to appeal the Data Protection Commissioner’s finding that her predecessor breached Data Protection law in his politically charged comments about Mick Wallace. (The complaint was made against the Minister for Justice & Equality, specifically”Š—”Ši.e. the holder of the office, not Alan Shatter as an individual.)

But most pressingly, she will have to preside over the biggest overhaul of policing architecture in the country’s history”Š—”Ša period which will probably require a fundamental rethinking not only of the role of the Garda Ombudsman, but also the creation of a new independent policing authority (which will still have to be responsible to someone else), and perhaps”Š—”Šdepending on the outcome of future reports or commissions”Š—”Šof the very Garda Síochána itself. And she”Š—”Šand the government”Š—”Šwill have to do all of this with Alan Shatter, the ghost of crises past, watching from the backbenches.

They say if you want something done, you should ask someone busy. Time will tell just how true that may be.

This is an abridged version of a longer blog post, accessible here.