Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not saying the status quo is not acceptable because all members of the Judiciary who have been appointment have acted independently. The one good point is that no matter what is said about anyone having political involvement or not, the Judiciary in its decisions is independent. On occasions, members of the Judiciary cause angst by some of the decisions they make.

There should not be any suggestion that we need to change matters to ensure the Judiciary is independent. It is independent. It is a separate arm of the State and it independently makes its decisions.

However, I think we can do better than the current structure. The current structure, which, as Deputy Mac Lochlainn correctly states, dates back to 1995, has been in place for some considerable time. It was an improvement on what preceded it but I think we can do better. I can assure the Deputy, in the context of the review we are conducting, I will have regard to his Bill.

I have a final point on the judicial council Bill. This is a Bill that has been delayed for some time. The previous Government promised to bring it forward. For the information of the House on where matters stand, there was a sub-committee on the part of the Judiciary on that matter and its observations were confirmed to me by the Chief Justice on 8 May 2012. We gave substantial consideration to those observations within my Department following which I conveyed relevant drafting instructions to the Attorney General in November 2012. There was already a prepared Bill which needed improvement and the drafting instructions are to facilitate the completion of that work. Unfortunately, there is some delay in that work because priority must be given to the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 where there is substantial work underway on Committee Stage amendments. I hope we will be able to take, or at least start, Committee Stage before Easter. It is the same personnel in the Attorney General's office who would be dealing with these matters and the judicial council Bill is in a queue in that context. However, we will get there.

On the other matter, I can assure the Deputy I have a specific interest in seeing can we improve upon the 1995 legislation. In whatever way we go, it is all about ensuring there is an independent Judiciary and persons of appropriate calibre are selected to be judges.

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