Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

I ask Deputy Ross to respond to what I say. I have read the Deputy's Bill, I have read the comment, and in terms of what I myself said, I acknowledge that the Bill makes reference to the political parties that are in government. I ask, before he launches any attack on what I have to say, that I might be afforded the luxury of saying it. I can assure the House that one of the first things I read this morning was the Bill that Deputy Ross brought forward, before I read anything else.

Moreover Deputy Ross entirely ignored views previously expressed on this subject by Members of the Oireachtas following the report of the Constitution Review Group in 1996, and the follow-up progress report of a committee of this House in 1999 Both reports rejected changes of a substantive nature to the judicial selection process under the current constitutional arrangements. He makes these proposals without regard to the academic discourse on the question of judicial selection and, indeed, without regard to the basic tenets of representative democracy and constitutional governance. This is a unique proposal - it is a model of judicial selection rejected by everyone in the common law world who has considered these matters over the last 60 years.

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