Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is four fifths or two thirds of the time one spends in secondary school. It is a long dent in the family, given one's preoccupation with an effort to achieve justice rather than law.

I do not buy the claim about frivolous or nuisance appeals. For example, companies often boast about getting 1,000 applications for one job, none of which are frivolous or nuisances. People do not always follow up but unless they have submitted their applications, there is no chance of reaching the next step of a just and fair consideration. I have first-hand experience, as do other members in their wider families, not just of employment appeal tribunals, but of annual assessments of jobs, particularly among trainees in professional services who may spend three or four years on trainee contracts. Dysfunctional human behaviour in large organisations can be taken out on trainees. In theory, there is an opportunity to get human relations managers to listen to reports of whatever has transpired. In reality, the HR departments of large organisations are sanitising divisions for coercive-type behaviour. I am telling the raw, truthful facts. I have no ideological position on this matter.

As organisations grow bigger, the chasm between justice and law grows wider. We all know in our hearts and souls where justice lies, that being, in principles, not in law. If principles are clearly set out, as in a family, we know that there is a better chance of having fairness in behaviour. If there is a plethora of complex, preconditional and post-conditional rules, one will not get much fairness. It is an illusion that the more complex the rules become by way of legislation, the greater the need for qualified experts to advocate various potential or theoretical positions. We have seen this in the Dáil in the past few weeks and now in the Seanad in the context of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. We all know the principles involved, but they are getting lost in the maze of legislation. If I was on a surgical table for a brain transplant - which my enemies would say I needed anyway - a heart operation or neurosurgery, the last aspect that I would want to insist on would be clarity by way of legislation for the surgeons involved. Provided the surgeon is well trained, well principled and has the patient's best interests at heart, I am happy. That is life.

Similar to law and employment, most of the medicine practised is iatrogenic medicine. Most people wonder what that is. It is the medicine that clears up the misdiagnoses and earlier medical procedures of a doctor who dealt with the same patient. The figure in America is 25%.