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

The whole point of the Bill is to amend the procedures that we have and to make sure that anybody who comes forward is suitable for the job and, first and foremost, that it is based on merit. Therefore, all three will now come based on merit and suitable for that particular role in whichever court, and all three will be capable of carrying out that job. Obviously, there is a provision here so that if there are not three people, and it might be two or otherwise, anybody who comes forward will be suitable for that job. At the moment, people coming forward are suitable but there is a much larger number and there is a more time-consuming and complex way to go through it.

With regard to my previous example of appointing a schoolteacher and a judge, they are two very different things. In saying that, we do not publish where somebody did not get a job or why, or the rankings and markings. There is a process that people go through and the same would apply here. It comes back to the substantial point that the Constitution clearly states that the Government will appoint a judge.

If a list is received with the candidates marked one, two and three, it takes away any discretion. There is an ability to point to any one of them but there also would be a need to give a reason for doing so. The question then arises as to why another candidate did not get the job, even though the commission has just said that all three are qualified for it. I am just not sure how that would work. There would a requirement to explain why one person got the job over the others when all three have come through the same process and been deemed suitable for the job. There must be an element of democratic input in appointing the person. That is clearly set out in the Constitution.