Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill:

The point I was going to make is that ensuring diversity in the Supreme Court is a matter for the Government which makes the appointments. If the Deputy was the Minister for Justice and Equality and was concerned about this, he would be able to approach appointments to the Supreme Court in a way that ensured that a broader range of perspectives, in his view as an elected representative and a member of Government, were represented on the Supreme Court. That is the importance of the role of politics. If, for example, Supreme Court appointments were delegated in some way to a body dominated by the Judiciary, would the Judiciary take that same line, or would it take the view the Supreme Court was being too conservative and that it should have a broader range of perspectives? That is the importance of the role of the law-making majority in judicial selection.