Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will be supporting all the amendments. At the heart of our position will be support for a lay majority, but I think there are other ways of doing this. I have no problem with a commission of 17. Perhaps the Government does, but I certainly do not. One of the issues arising from this bureaucracy is that there would be six lay members, but only five on each committee. There would be lay members, whom we hope will influence the diversity and representation of the judiciary. However, there might be somebody who is perfectly well equipped to deal with that who would never have a say in a District Court or Supreme Court appointment, merely because they are not on that committee. If the model of the Commission as a whole was adopted, all six of the lay members currently proposed would have a say in each appointment. That is something of an anomaly.