Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To group the amendments together, the only democratic input that there will be in this whole process after the change is essentially the decision to choose one of the three, and that is based on the fact that under the Constitution, the Government must retain the power to make a decision. If candidates are given a ranking of one, two or three, that obviously takes away any democratic approach and goes against what would be in the handbook, which will be based on the Constitution.

On the second amendment, in any job interview process, whether it is for a teacher in a school or anywhere else, there is no process afterwards whereby a person is told why they did not get the job and somebody else did, or where it is publicly published in that way. I do not think it would be appropriate to do so here.

The main focus is around the numbering. If one was to take away any sort of decision-making power, to me that essentially would require changing the Constitution because it expressly states the Government will appoint judges. By removing that power, one is potentially not going in line with what the Constitution says.

It is absolutely appropriate, where there is an elected Government and an elected Minister, that the Government of the day would retain that power. At the moment, I could potentially receive up to 50 names between the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, expressions of interest and eligible judges, and moving from 50 names down to three is a massive reduction.