Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ex-stockbrokers, ex-journalists and ex-social workers.

We also welcome the move to prohibit in law the lobbying of public representatives by potential candidates for the Judiciary. This is a very welcome move. We want to introduce a statutory bar on political affiliation forming part of a determination of suitability for an appointment. We are not convinced that a requirement for independence is suitably sufficient.

I shall now turn to the undertaking of training. It should be within the scope of the commission to recommend training. This should not only be the responsibility of the president of the court in which a judge sits. A formal judicial training procedure should be developed for all levels of the Judiciary, including introductory courses and mandatory continuing professional development.

Critics of the Bill say that the Judiciary is a particular type of profession and that no one from any other walk of life could possibly be qualified to make recommendations for appointment to it. I do not subscribe to this analysis.

I shall conclude. We welcome the Bill, even though it is not the radical reform and attempt at modernisation that we have been led to believe. It is a very minor item of legislation in the context of radically overhauling how people are nominated for appointment. It will not have the implications for the administration of justice that Fianna Fáil tries to tell us. I was interested to hear Deputy O'Callaghan say that people who sit on the commission will need to nominate individuals who are going to be open-minded and fair and who will respect the independence of judges. This was one of the reasons put forward for not having a lay membership. I do not believe that is fair.

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