Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I preface my remarks by saying that we are very fortunate in our Judiciary whose members are independent minded and independent in spirit. As I said on Tuesday evening when speaking on the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Bill, the Judiciary provides the checks and balances which both this House and any Government needs. However, there is undoubtedly a perception that one needs to have political connections to be appointed to the Bench. This is the perception, whether true or not. The appointments made by this Government and by Governments in which my party participated, have always emphasised this perception and the most recent appointments reinforce it.

Dearbhail McDonald, a fine journalist with the Irish Independent, produced research recently which showed there had been 6,000 applications for judicial appointments - an extraordinary figure - and yet, those selected in the most recent round were people with political connections. The Minister's review is urgently required as some form of checks and balances is required in the system so those applicants without political connections would be confident of having as equal a chance as anybody else to serve on the Bench. There is a danger that the longer we leave the system as it is, that confidence will not be there.

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