Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Of course, there are some Labour Party judges, that is a point, but overwhelmingly they are connected to the party on this side of the House and the party across the floor of the House, Fine Gael.

The proposal is that there would be a reform of the judicial appointments system, but even if we take away the most blatant political involvement and interest in appointing judges, we are still left with a Judiciary which is riven with class bias. The overwhelming bulk of judges in this State are barristers. This is perhaps the most difficult of all the professions for a young working-class person to which to gain access. One would have to be able to put oneself through years and years of college, then engage in an apprenticeship devilling for one year mandatory without any wage and, as I understand is the norm now in the profession, devilling for a second year without any wage. One would have to do years of college and then two years of working for nothing. How many sons of a construction worker could do that? How many daughters of taxi drivers could do that? After many years, the barristers go on to become judges where they are paid not double but triple the European average. They share the lifestyle of the ruling elite, and their vantage point for looking out on society is the vantage point of the ruling elite.

The changes that are needed regarding the Judiciary in this country go well beyond the timid reforms being proposed before the House, but we will debate that and the alternatives to it in the discussions next week.

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