Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill:

Both reports take the view that judicial appointments are too political currently and that poses a danger. Neither report defines what they mean by "political" and it must be inferred that they mean party political patronage as opposed to any other form of acting politically. The recommendations focus largely on the number of recommendations to be made to Government. I find it frustrating because the powers to make more rigorous selections are already contained in the legislation. They are already the preserve and previous practice of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board. When looking at the criteria for selection, my colleagues have noted that they are vague. However, I take the view that it was the Oireachtas giving the board extraordinary powers to define these things for itself. I suggest the committee asks the board what its objective criteria are. Does it need to be written into statute or is it something that has already been given in an extraordinarily broad - not vague - way to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board?

The merit principle is one of the recommendations of the judicial appointments review committee, which it is explicitly suggested should be written into legislation. It does not seem to be problematic, but the inference is that the recommendations it has been making have been based on something other than merit. That does not seem to add up. The Judicial Appointments Advisory Board has played a very effective role. While it has widened its discretion, from the perspective of Government there were 116 judicial appointments between 1995 and 2007, of which 111 were made from among the candidates recommended by the board, ten were promotions and only one was an appointment made outside the advisory process. Government uses the JAAB recommendations.

The board has all the powers already. In my view, the Oireachtas has already given the powers suggested in the recommendations to the board and it is up to the latter to apply it. I assume that it what it is doing. It might come and explain that to the committee.