Dr. Laura Cahillane:

A requirement to consider a particular competency in the Irish language would not necessarily be a bar to diversity in general. In one way, it could be a way of encouraging diversity in terms of representing geographical areas where Irish might be a primary language. We must be very careful because the Irish language is given primacy in the Constitution and we must protect that. People have a right to have their cases heard through the Irish language. We would have to maintain that criterion in the legislation, but we could make the other criteria around diversity stronger in the Bill itself if we want to broaden it out along the lines of what Dr. O'Brien set out. As we heard from previous speakers, for a long time in Ireland diversity is an area we have not really considered to be necessary and taking action, for example, such as broadening the pool and allowing legal academics apply for judicial eligibility, but making that a reality rather than having restricted barriers to entry is going to be a major benefit in terms of increasing the potential pool. The same is true of trying to encourage solicitors as well as barristers. We know that judges are predominantly taken from the pool of barristers rather than solicitors. Perhaps having specific references to that in the legislation would enable the procedures committee to then build its processes around having diversity as a goal.