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

I thank the Minister for his response, to which I listened carefully. It indicates how complicated the procedure will be. Even the Minister must accept that the length of time required to provide an explanation to justify the procedures committee indicates that it is excessively complicated. The first amendment in my name and that of Deputy Jack Chambers attempts to prevent the establishment of the committee as it would be too bureaucratic and there would be a mini empire of directors and so on appearing on radio shows and similar. The Minister has got that. However, he is proposing to set up separate committees within the commission. There will be a report from the procedures committee and another from the District Court committee. There will be a chairman of the procedures committee. Instead of only the director of the Judicial Appointments Commission appearing on "The Marian Finucane Show", he or she will be joined by the chairman of the procedures committee of the Judicial Appointments Commission. It is unnecessarily bureaucratic.

The Minister disputed the figure I gave in regard to the expenses of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board last year being approximately €5,000. I was incorrect as the correct figure for 2016 was €7,100 according to a report in The Sunday Business Poston 2 July. The judicial appointments process needs to be reformed and I introduced legislation on behalf of Fianna Fáil in that respect. For that process to be satisfactorily performed would require it to be done for a relatively small amount of money and without having a variety of committees. It would be done by having a board of 11 or 12 members who meet three or four times a year to make recommendations to Government. I am concerned that the mechanism proposed in this legislation will make the process complicated beyond what is necessary for recommending eight or nine people for appointment.The amendments aim to remove the procedures committee from the legislation. It is just one of the many committees dealt with in the legislation but there is no necessity for it. Let the Judicial Appointments Commission be a coherent entity and one body that makes its rules. A process involving a separate procedures committee and other committees would be far too complicated. Even the Minister must appreciate the complexity that is being introduced. It is not rocket science.