Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I was trying to put some balance to Deputy Howlin's earlier eulogising.

The Taoiseach made the point earlier that this appointment was made legally and with the correct process. That is not the case. It is a red herring to say that it was not illegal. We know that it was not illegal because the current system of political appointments to the Judiciary, the very one the Government made such a point about changing, is very much alive and well. This was a political appointment. However, if it was the correct process, why is the Government in such a rush to change it? Why is it talking about going so far as to extend the Dáil into the recess in order to get this Bill through? Why, when the Chief Justice and the president of the Court of Appeal wrote to the Government last October and asked it to fill those vacancies, did the Government respond that it was not filling them because it was not filling any vacancies until we had a new system in place? Yet, on the eve of the summer holidays of the Court of Appeal, when it is going into recess in a couple of weeks, at the last meeting with the old Taoiseach's agenda, we have this appointment being rubber-stamped. It is an absolute disgrace.

All week, the myth has been pedalled that this is typical of the current appointment regime. That is not true. Bad as the current regime is, as Deputy O'Callaghan pointed out, practically nobody has been appointed outside of the JAAB process, except for sitting judges who are going for promotion. That is the system. It is not even within the current system. It is outside that. What makes it more galling is it is outside that with the person who was charged by the then Minister, Deputy Shatter, who set up this process, to look for expressions of interest in this job is the very person who ended up landing the job. It has caused outrage among citizens. How the Government has the brass neck to defend it is beyond me. That brass neck is equalled entirely by Fianna Fáil because the Government may have made the appointment but the only reason it stands, and the only reason that the individual has not been embarrassed into withdrawing, is because it huffed and puffed. If Fianna Fáil was really serious, it would have had a motion in here last night, a motion of no confidence in the Government which would have put an end to the matter. Those games need to be dealt with too.

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