Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister states we should not depart from the current legislative position. The reason we have spent weeks and months adjudicating on this Bill is that the present situation needs to be altered. There is no constitutional impediment. The judicial appointments review committee, comprising judges and chaired by Mrs. Justice Susan Denham recommended that the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board should be empowered to rank candidates. It did not have a problem with that issue.

What is being said here is that the power to recommend has to lie with the commission or else there is no point in setting it up. The power to advise the President on appointments has to remain with the Government, as provided for in the Constitution. There is nothing wrong with that. The Government advises the President, but that should not prevent the Government from being limited in who it can advise on. There is no contradiction there whatsoever. We are empowering the commission, so it has to be given some teeth.