Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Taoiseach a basic question on vacancies to State boards, which was if he had spoken to the Minister about them, but he flatly ignored the question and refused to reply to it. On judicial appointments, the Taoiseach has announced a new departure today. In the past he said there was no such edict in terms of appointing judges, or failing to appoint judges. It seems the Taoiseach met the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, on the matter and the Taoiseach blinked, because he is now using new language to the effect that the Government has a preference now that it would not appoint any new judges until the new legislation is enacted in a couple of months time. It is the combined behaviour of the Minister, Deputy Ross, including what he has said about the Judiciary, that I put to the Taoiseach. We have the separation of powers, but the Minister has in a cavalier way gone out to undermine it and the Taoiseach knows it. The Minister is doing it because he thinks it is popular and a nice message, but he is a Minister and he should not be doing it. The Legislature owes some respect to the judicial pillar and vice versa.

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