Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh has been elected as Ireland’s next judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Her election follows a vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday (16 April).

She replaces ECtHR President Síofra O’Leary, whose term of office is due to expire on 1 July this year.

The Government had been asked by the assembly to submit a list of three candidates. The other candidates were Judge Fergal Gaynor and Prof Colm Ó Cinnéide.

‘Fundamental role’

Micheál Martin (Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Minister for Defence) welcomed the election of Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

The Tánaiste said: “Ireland is firmly committed to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The European Court of Human Rights plays a fundamental role in ensuring the observance of those rights and freedoms by the parties to the convention.

“I am confident that Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh will perform her functions as a judge, in the words of the declaration that she will make before taking up office, ‘honourably, independently, and impartially’," he concluded.