Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Fianna Fáil Bill has been ignored for seven months. It passed Second Stage and the Department of Justice and Equality has failed to allow it to proceed to Committee Stage to at least provide parallel oversight and a parallel process to be undertaken in order that the best aspects of both Bills could form the best legislative measure to reform the judicial appointments process.

We all agree that politics needs to be removed from judicial appointments but the issue of intervening and creating a political aspect to this was seen in the recent appointment of the former Attorney General, Máire Whelan, to the Court of Appeal. The Government claimed it is steadfast in reforming judicial appointments while, at the same time, it threw its own Attorney General under a bus by removing her from her position. If she had the competence and expertise, why was she not left in her position? Why was she removed? It was politically expedient to appoint her to the Court of Appeal and then move the agenda on to the reform of the judicial appointments process and throw it back at Fianna Fáil. My party made errors in the past in this regard but we want to reform and depoliticise the process. The best way to do that is put the Chief Justice, the independent arbiter of our legal system, in the chairperson's seat with a spread of representatives from civil society on a new judicial appointments commission. That has not been done in the Bill. I assure the Minister of State and others that we will not allow the Government to railroad it through the House. The Joint Committee on Justice and Equality has taken that decision. The Government, therefore, will have time to reflect on the flaws in its Bill.

The programme for Government refers to "a transparent, fair and credible reform of judicial appointments" and this legislation is anything but that. How can a transparent process be ensured if we do not know who will be the members comprising a majority on the commission? There will be a public appointments process but we are not sure who the appointees will be, what their agenda will be or what judges they will select. If anything, the Government is opening up the possibility of this becoming a more - not less - political selection process for judges. The best person to ensure a non-political selection process is the Chief Justice in the role of chairperson, as we have outlined.

The Minister and the Government have failed in another aspect by trying to railroad the Bill through the House and scheduling Committee Stage next week before Second Stage has passed. That undermines the democratic process. Many Opposition Members would like to table amendments. How will we have fair time and due process to amend the Bill if the Government is willing to listen to us? The fact that the Government parties want this off the agenda and have it dealt with demonstrates how they do not have the democratic process at heart.

We proposed five judicial and seven non-judicial members on the commission, which would provide for a good spread of representatives from civil society, whereas the Government proposes a three-nine split. By excluding the District Court and other lower courts form the selection process, this would mean the majority of judges would be appointed to the lower courts and the Bill should be amended in this regard. The absence of a statutory framework for the selection criteria in the Bill highlights that the Government parties have not detailed in their own minds what judges they would like to see appointed.

The Fianna Fáil Bill makes it clear that we would like people of integrity appointed and we listed various criteria that would play a core role in judicial appointments. The fact that they have been ignored means we are not sure what type of experience and background the potential candidates will need. By ignoring that in the statutory framework, the Minister is creating a political vacuum and giving the commission the opportunity to appoint whomever it likes. There will be no ranking of candidates under the legislation, which means there could be a repeat of the Máire Whelan affair. The former Attorney General ignored section 18 of the 2005 Act but, in theory, the Attorney General of the day could form part of the small pool of candidates. This will not be ranked, which will give the Executive the power to select whomever it wishes based on his or her political background. We all want to avoid this. We want to remove politics from the selection process but the proposed statutory framework does not achieve that because the Department, the Minister and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport have in a ham-fisted way tried to draft this legislation without examining either the political consequences or the consequences for the Judiciary.

While the Taoiseach and others have stated that the Judiciary needs to stay out of the legislation process, with which we all agree, the fact that the Judiciary has acted in such a public way at all court levels must alarm the Government. This is a significant departure but it is due to the consequences of this legislation for the independence of our Judiciary. This legislation could politicise the selection process in a greater way. We do not know how the unknown laypersons will be selected and what will be their agenda. What is proposed creates a vacuum and too much uncertainty for those who wish to be appointed as judges because there will no ranking criteria or statutory process to guide the Government and to construct greater barriers to prevent the Government over politicising the judicial appointments process.

The programme for Government states, "The new structure will include a transparent, fair and credible process". The statutory framework fails to achieve that aim. The programme for Government also states, "We will reduce the number of suitable candidates proposed by the judicial appointments commission for each vacancy to the lowest number advised as constitutionally and legally permissible". The Minister has failed to provide credible criteria for appointment in the statutory framework or a ranking profile, which would sideline the political process. That would not be transparent, fair or credible for those seeking appointment to the Judiciary.

The Minister needs to spend significant time gutting this legislation to remove many of its negative aspects. The Government needs to work collectively to ensure it removes the duplicitous, two-faced approach whereby text messages are being sent to backbenchers to encourage them to undermine the Bill at the same time as they are publicly supportive of it. No Member should have his or her unilateral agenda provided for in this legislation.

We in Fianna Fáil will stop that occurring. We will stop the Government from trying to appease one member of the Executive and from railroading his agenda through this House. It is important we uphold a credible, fair and transparent process that delivers the criteria impartially and delivers a process that can last a length of time.

I urge Sinn Féin to stop this happening. This is happening with the support of Sinn Féin and the Government is relying on Sinn Féin for support, something that has been ignored in the political debate over recent hours and days. Sinn Féin is facilitating this Bill. It criticised Fianna Fáil and criticised Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Today, Sinn Féin is Tweedledee. It is allowing a flawed process to progress through this House. The Government should examine the Bill further. As members of the Committee on Justice and Equality, we will not allow the Government to railroad this through the Dáil.

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