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

I will be very brief. I state formally that I support Deputy Wallace's amendments Nos. 84 and 85. I will not get an opportunity to speak on them again but I think I spoke on them before. I will be supporting them. There are many amendments on the procedures committee, but it all comes down to one issue, which is whether we need one. I do not know if members have the Bill before them, but the functions of the procedures committee are dealt with in section 58. It is on page 39 of the Bill. The section provides that the procedures committee will be responsible for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the Act, the practical operation of the published statement, the diversity among candidates for judicial appointment, the effectiveness and application of the qualification requirements, the effectiveness of the administrative support, the adequacy of the functions assigned to the commission and international developments. Those functions should be carried out by the commission itself. We will have a judicial appointments commission and a separate procedures commission. I assume every member of the judicial appointments commission will be on top of the items I have just outlined. I would not like to see a situation in which one could be a member of the commission and say, "The issue of diversity among candidates is not an issue for me because it is a matter for the procedures committee". It complicates matters and is unnecessary. It is one commission with 13 individuals. If one is on it, one should have a full, broad overview of the functions one is being asked to carry out by the Oireachtas. It is not necessary to have separate committees to deal with it. I am conscious of what Deputies Daly and Ó Laoghaire say about the procedures committee. They appear to be more favourable and if that is the case, so be it. We can deal with the other things in the next grouping of amendments.