Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill:

I take a slightly different view to my colleague in respect of differentiations between different courts. I think they are all equally important. The role of the District Court judge is just as important as that of the Supreme Court judge although they perform different functions. The District Court judge is where most Irish citizens come into contact with the courts and it is extraordinarily important that the judges are courteous and of the appropriate temperament. They must be able to make the correct decisions and deal with very long lists and all of the different personalities and legal issues that will come before them on a given day.

I take the view that there is a very important role for political representatives in the selection of judges. The tendency is to write out politics, but what one is doing there is writing out people's representatives. All of the members of the committee represent people and have a sense of what they want and what is important to them. Political representatives can make assessments on whether a person has the right temperament, which is one of the criteria to be a judge, all other things, including merit, qualifications and experience, being equal.

The requirements for a judge will be different depending on the court. There is no way to distinguish them and I take a very strong view that politics must play a strong role in the selection of judges. If one delegates responsibility for selecting judges to the Judiciary or an independent board and removes the direct role of the people's representatives, it is to make a serious decision about the constitutional order between the role of the people and the judicial function. It is not part of the constitutional judicial function to select judges. It is appropriate that the law-making majority, which is the members here, makes decisions on the type of system we have and the type of people they want to be judges. That includes the diversity issue. It is entirely appropriate that politicians take a view that there is a public policy imperative to appoint more women. Politics can do that.