1. What is the title, rank and position of the Legal Adviser?

The Office of the Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Legal Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland) is headed by the Legal Adviser, who holds the rank of Director General. The Division is staffed by professionally qualified lawyers, who are permanent civil servants, as well as administrative staff.

2. What are the principal functions of the OLA?

The Legal Division provides legal advice and information to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on matters of public international law, human rights law, European Union law and issues of domestic law particular to the Department. It coordinates the development, promotion and implementation of international legal policy in areas such as international humanitarian law, international criminal justice and the law of the sea. The Division represents Ireland in international legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and human rights bodies. It also represents Ireland in legal committees in the UN, Council of Europe, EU and other international organisations. The Division carries out functions with respect to extradition and mutual legal assistance and administers the Department's Treaty Office.

3. Please give a brief description of staff employed by the OLA, including overseas staff. What is the distribution of posts between men and women within the OLA and what category of staff do they respectively belong to?

There are currently nine legal experts permanently based in head quarters, who travel abroad as required – a Legal Adviser, a Deputy Legal Adviser and a Legal Counsellor (both at Director level) and six Assistant Legal Advisers. They are assisted by five support staff. Two interns are recruited annually.

4. Are there any specific recruitment and promotion policies, provisions and/or quotas to ensure non-discrimination and equal opportunities, e.g. for the underrepresented sex, for persons with disabilities or for persons belonging to ethnic or religious minorities or of immigrant origin?

Lawyers constitute a separate career stream within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Assistant Legal Advisers are recruited by way of open competition. Promotion to Director level takes place by way of internal competition within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Legal Adviser is appointed by way of open competition by the Top Level Appointments Commission for the Irish public service. On occasion, legal staff are temporarily assigned to the diplomatic or general service streams of the Department and staff from the latter streams with appropriate legal qualifications may be assigned temporarily to the Legal Division.

Legal staff are required to be professionally qualified lawyers – ie to be barristers or solicitors. An excellent knowledge of international law and relevant experience is also required.

All staff are recruited and promoted in accordance with EU law and Irish employment law, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender, civil status, family status, age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and membership of the Traveller community. There are no gender quotas, but there are civil service wide targets aimed at achieving gender equality. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is committed to gender equality, including in relation to postings and headquarters assignments, as well as recruitment and promotion. All persons serving on interview boards, which are required to be gender balanced, receive unconscious bias training, including on gender issues.

The Civil Service Renewal Plan includes measures to improve gender balance in the Irish civil service. To complement and enhance these measures, in 2012 the Management Board of the Department established a Sub-Committee on Gender Equality. The Sub-Committee was charged with developing a gender strategy, aimed at achieving equality between women and men. In 2017 its function was expanded to cover equality and diversity more broadly, taking account of the grounds for non-discrimination listed above as well as socio-economic status. The Sub-Committee has a working party on implementation of the Department’s Gender Equality Action Plan. There is also a Gender Equality Network that organises Department-wide lectures and discussions, featuring internal and external speakers on a wide range of gender equality issues.

5. Is OLA staff trained on gender equality issues and are these issues mainstreamed into the OLA’s work?

There is no specific training of the staff of the Legal Division, but legal staff can avail of training available to Departmental staff on gender equality issues. Efforts are made to mainstream gender equality issues in all areas of the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including through the work of the Management Board Sub-Committee on Gender Equality, Equality and Diversity.

6. Briefly describe the organisation and structure of the OLA.

The Legal Division is headed by the Legal Adviser. The Deputy Legal Adviser and the Legal Counsellor each head a team of three Assistant Legal Advisers. Lawyers are assigned specific areas of responsibility on which they work with a high degree of autonomy, but also work flexibly across the areas of work assigned to their team and the Division as a whole. Lawyers engage with “client” business units, horizontally across the Division and with their line managers, as well as with other Government Departments and Offices.

7. What is the OLA’s place within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

The Legal Division is one of eight Divisions and five Units at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Legal Adviser is a member of the Department’s Management Board.

8. What are the main contacts of the OLA within Government?

The Legal Division works closely with other Government Departments and the Law Offices of the State, including the Office of the Attorney General, on the areas of law falling within its mandate.

9. Please describe the relations of the OLA with lawyers in private practice, academics and legal institutions.

Lawyers from private practice are retained by the Government, via the Office of the Attorney General, to assist in the preparation of written submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and other courts and tribunals, as well as to make oral presentations as necessary and in such cases will work closely with the Legal Division. Lawyers from the Division maintain ongoing contacts with lawyers in private practice, in academia and in legal institutions through their participation in professional bodies, speaking and attendance at conference and seminars and through informal contacts. They may also be involved in the teaching of law at academic institutions and write in academic journals.

10. Please provide a brief bibliography on the OLA, if available.

J. Kingston, “Organisation and Context for the Work of the Legal Adviser: The Legal Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland” in A. Zidar and J.-P. Gauci (eds) The Role of Legal Advisers in International Law (Leiden: Brill; Boston: Nijhoff, 2016), pp70-86.