Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Deputies for their contributions to the Second Stage debate. I especially wish to acknowledge the contribution of Deputy Mac Lochlainn and have listened very carefully to all the remarks and insights from Deputies in the course of the debate. It has been a worthwhile and constructive engagement and many points that have been made today are extremely valuable, While they are points that have been raised previously in the House in debates on this important question, this is not to suggest they do not remain important and they will be considered carefully. I have taken careful note of what has been said.

The matter we have debated today is a complex one - it touches off concerns about equality, diversity, eligibility, judicial independence, resources issues, qualification criteria and many other issues in an area of great importance to the administration of justice in the State. I have explained to the House that the Government is tackling the issues covered by Deputy Mac Lochlainn's Bill in a comprehensive and consultative manner. The precise extent of any measures that are needed to deal with the issues we have discussed will be shaped by the outcomes of the consultations process which is at the heart of the current review.

Deputy Ross expressed concerns about delay or the length of time of the process. He caricatured the consultation process in a sense that it was something so rooted in bureaucracy and delay, as he sees it, that nothing would ever happen. I assure the Deputy and the House that the Minister has every intention of addressing this question and she is currently addressing it through the process I have outlined. The Minister intends to address the issues raised and the issues of which she is aware. As I said in my contribution, I anticipate that the process will continue through the summer and that a resulting outline of legislative proposals should be available towards the end of this year, it is hoped. We are heading towards that prospect of bringing forward an outline of legislative proposals towards the end of 2014. This is a real commitment which the Minister has given in the context of the consultation process and it is not a case of it being said for the purposes of ending the debate or fobbing people off; it is a statement of a clear intention of the Minister and which I have repeated today on her behalf. The Minister expects to be in a position quite soon to bring forward a full assessment of all the relevant elements of the matter, and she intends to develop these further in the manner I have described.

In so far as the Deputy's Bill is concerned, I have opposed the Bill on the specific grounds that its provisions do not provide an adequate framework to address all the issues that I believe require to be considered and to some degree it also lacks key elements that almost inevitably will feature in the comprehensive reform planned in this area. The best and indeed, the only way, to guard against any of the concerns of Deputies or members of the public about the appointments process to the Bench, is that the system of appointment is clear, transparent and is properly balanced. Deputy Mac Lochlainn made the point about a person applying for judicial office who has, in the past, had an association with a political party. This fact cannot of itself, cause somebody to be excluded from the process, just by reason of the fact that he or she has had a previous political association. The challenge, however, is to ensure that the system of appointment of that person is sufficiently robust and transparent to reassure those who might have a suspicion, even a remote suspicion, that a political background may have entered into the equation as a basis for the appointment of that person. I agree with that motivation of the Deputy, that the system should be sufficiently robust and sufficiently clear and transparent to guard against any such risks that might exist, now or in the future. That is what we are all trying to achieve.

The extent to which it has been suggested by some speakers that people are appointed wholesale on the basis of a political background rather than on the basis of merit and competence, I reject and I do not believe it is so. To the extent that we need to be absolutely clear that I am correct in this view and that this or future Governments are also correct to hold such a view, the system of appointment deserves and merits a review. It is being currently reviewed, with a view to the bringing forward of changes as the Minister and the Government may deem appropriate and ultimately that the Oireachtas will be asked to consider and about which the Oireachtas will have the final say in any change to the legislation in this area.

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