Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. He communicated that to me by way of a letter and has just stated the ruling again. In fairness to him, it is an instruction that he has received from the Bills Office, so I do not hold him in any way responsible for ruling amendment No. 25 out of order.

The basis for it being ruled out of order is that it incurs a potential charge on revenue, but I find that difficult to accept. My amendment proposes that the presidents of the Circuit Court and District Court be added to the judicial appointments commission. No charge is involved in that. There is no claim for remuneration that a judge is entitled to as a result of being a member of the commission. We know that the expenses of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, JAAB, on which sit the presidents of the Circuit Court and District Court, were in the region of less than €5,000 last year, so I do not see how it can be suggested that, by adding them, I am putting a charge on revenue.

What makes it even more surprising is my amendment No. 49, which seeks the appointment of six individuals to the commission. They would be persons nominated by the Citizens Information Board, an tÚdarás um Ard-Oideachas, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, FLAC and the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC. Some of these are included in Deputy Daly's amendment, which is being ruled out of order, so I do not see how amendment No. 49 stands when amendment No. 25 is ruled out of order.

I am conscious that the Chairman cannot change this, but I want to record my objection. It is appropriate that this body contain the presidents of the District Court and the Circuit Court. They are members of the JAAB. The majority of appointments are to the District and Circuit courts. By excluding the presidents of those courts from membership of the commission, we are doing a disservice to the public and losing out on important expertise. The Chairman cannot do anything about it this morning, but I will seek to table amendments to that effect on the next Stage when the Bill returns to the Dáil so as to ensure that those two officeholders are members of the commission.