Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is not going to call the Minister to account and is not going to straighten this out. He talks about the independence of the Judiciary and in that context, I have a suggestion to make to him. My party colleague, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, brought forward legislation to end the system of political appointments to the Bench.

We should have an independent process to appoint judges and if the Government is that committed to its independence, with the Judiciary the cornerstone of our democracy, why does it not bring forward that legislation? It would make it truly independent. When something is clearly going wrong, why does the Taoiseach not intervene with the line Minister and insist that matters be sorted out? He seems to prefer to turn a blind eye or look the other way while hoping for the best.

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