Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Judicial Appointments Advisory Board has been in place since the mid-1990s. Since then there have been 160 appointments, with thousands expressing an interest so there is considerable demand among very capable candidates for these posts. It continues to be the case, however, that judicial appointments are made of people whose track record shows involvement in political parties. Around 30% of appointments at one point according to the Irish Independent were clearly active members of Fine Gael or the Labour Party over the years. We must put an end to that practice.

To promote debate around this topic, I have drawn up a Private Members' Bill where I propose the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board be reformed and would submit to the Minister a short list of three candidates for a post, clearly outlining the reasons that they have been chosen, and the Minister would then select one person, clearly outlining his reasons. That would restore complete faith in how judicial appointments are made and remove any suggestion of political cronyism or jobbery.

That type of culture must end.

I take on board the Minister's point on our previous exchange on this, that, of course, involvement in politics should not exclude one from the Judiciary, but if there was a more accountable system of appointment, it would remove any suggestion that somebody was appointed because of his or her political affiliation.

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