Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy implied that there is nothing wrong with political connections and that it is nonsense to suggest judges are recruited on the basis of political connections.

I put it to him that it is complete nonsense to suggest that people who were appointed because of their connections to political parties or who, for that matter, were appointed by Governments are not in some way influenced by those who appointed or selected them. That has to have some impact and it is a worrying one.

The whole thing needs to be shaken up. For that reason, I will support the Bill moving to Committee Stage. In principle, I like the idea of having a majority of lay representatives on the commission but a hell of a lot more than that needs to be done. We need to broaden and democratise the base of the entire legal and judicial system and stop it being an elitist club dominated by secret societies such as the benchers. We also need to bring an end to the monopoly of the King's Inns over who can become a barrister because that leads to its members having a consequently disproportionate influence. Even the new commission proposed in the Bill will have five members who are also benchers. A secret society will have influence on the new commission with regard to who will be recommended and considered to be acceptable and the right kind of person to be a judge. That is completely unacceptable and it brings to mind the expression which says there is one law for the rich and one for the poor, not just in the dispensation of the law but in how it is structured. That is how it works at every level all the way up the line. The experience of court for working class people, who make up the vast majority of our population, is in the District Court, where one goes in and industrial, production-line justice is dispensed. There are no juries. The judges of the District Court, who are all mandatory members of the society of the benchers - with its secret lunches and so on - dispense justice on the poor. However, if one is rich, one can afford to go to the higher courts. I do not know why the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, is laughing. Poor people cannot access the same level of justice as rich people. That is a fact. The higher echelons of the Judiciary and barristers overwhelmingly come from private schools and better-off backgrounds and inner circle groups vet and select who gets into the higher echelons. That is the reality of what is going on.

In terms of the simple things that need to be done, the monopoly of King's Inns should be ended. UCD, NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin and other universities should be allowed to train judges and barristers rather than it being the remit of King's Inns and controlled by the benchers or whatever the hell they are called. That needs to end. There needs to be an end to the idea that Members cannot criticise judges or their decisions. Members should have the right to criticise judges, who should likewise have the right to criticise Members. I have no problem with that.

The PAS also poses a problem, as has been mentioned by Members opposing the Bill. Who selects the civil servants in the PAS? Who are the members of the PAS or the top level appointments committee and who selects them? They are also a self-perpetuating elite. That is not a good enough way to select judges or Secretaries General.

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