Dr. Laura Cahillane:

There is no evidence to show that judges appointed by a particular Government have been in any way favourable to it. There is no evidence to show that any particular Administration has tried to influence any judge because it appointed him or her. Nobody would disagree that our judges are seen as extremely independent. The issue of political appointments is one of the things we are getting at today. The system appears to be very politically motivated and judges have admitted to using political influence. Many of the submissions to the Department of Justice and Equality criticise the fact that the system does nothing to prevent the possibility of canvassing and the existence of political patronage. We must examine this.