Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

After the last general election, the former Taoiseach made the grand offer to Fianna Fáil to abandon our election promises and form a coalition. Had we accepted that offer, poor Deputy Ross would not have been in Cabinet. He was critical about reform. He said reform does not butter parsnips and, while it is important, it is not something that came up at the doors. He cited the housing crisis and asked why it was not being tackled. It is now 12 months into a Government of which he is a member and the promise that was made to end homeless families sleeping in hotels has been broken. Now he is rushing through legislation and we must ask why. The reason he is rushing it through - I understand he was going to bring down the Government if this was not adopted before the summer - is because he sat on his hands when the former Attorney General was appointed to the Court of Appeal. He was exposed; he did not care about the appointments process so long as he got what he wanted.

There was an article in my local newspaper in which the member of the Independent Alliance from my constituency said what Fine Gael did was wrong - as if the Independent Alliance was not part of the Government - but it is okay because the Minister, Deputy Ross, has a Bill that will proceed before the summer recess. If the legislation was imminent three weeks ago, why did he agree to that appointment? If, as we are led to believe, the legislation was imminent three weeks ago, why was that appointment agreed to? We know that previous judicial appointments were blocked by the Minister, Deputy Ross, saying he wanted a reform of the system. Those blockages of judicial appointments led to a backlog in court cases, which led to a delay in the administration of justice. The other day, he said it was something he had championed all his political career. What he hopes some people will forget is that he is now into his fourth decade as a Member of the Oireachtas. One can go back and look at the debate on KildareStreet.comfrom 1995, when the legislation was changed following the appointment of an Attorney General directly to the courts. Would you believe it? It appears he did not contribute to the debate at all but of course, this is something he has championed all his political life. Perhaps he was writing a column for the Sunday newspapers in the week in question. Questions have been asked of me continually over the past number of weeks by stakeholders in the area of transport, tourism and sport. Where is the passion? Where is the commitment? Where is the dedication? We do not see it in the area of transport. The only legislation the Minister, Deputy Ross, has pursued in his own Department over the past 12 months is on drugs and driving. It took him until December to bring forward legislation that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, had left waiting for him when he assumed office. Only yesterday, during Priority Questions in the Chamber, he confirmed he does not know if a statutory instrument or legislation is needed to give the Irish Aviation Authority the power to regulate noise. This issue is preventing the construction of a second runway and impeding development. There already has been a double-digit number of accidents or deaths involving cyclists this year. One of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan's ministerial colleagues has put her name to that legislation. A junior ministerial colleague has also put her name to it. The Minister, Deputy Ross, is not bringing it before the Dáil. Why is that? The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, is very familiar with the issue of Brexit and was doing a good job on it in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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Brexit is one of the biggest challenges facing the aviation sector, which supports approximately 50,000 jobs. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport did not even meet his European counterparts to discuss how the open skies policy will be maintained following Brexit until I exposed that he had not spoken to them. That is an absolute joke. It is a pity the Minister does not bring the same vigour and commitment to the areas for which he has responsibility as he has to this legislation, which is not under his control.

The Minister, Deputy Ross, is correct that political allegiance should not bring advantages to anyone in any walk of life when applying for a job. While it should not result in preferential treatment or favouritism, nor should it disqualify someone from a position. I find, and I am sure the Minister in his long political career has found likewise, that the majority of people who are active in political parties have a strong social conscience, want to give something back to society and have, at the top of their agenda, a desire to benefit their community. The Minister, Deputy Ross, appears to believe there is something wrong with those who are involved in a political party. I remind him that the only difference between the Independent Alliance and the political parties is that members of the former receive an additional €40,000 per annum from the public purse to spend as they wish on campaigning and hiring staff to do constituency work. Has every job allocated, sanctioned or approved by the Independent Alliance in the past 12 or 18 months gone through the public appointments process? Have all of these jobs been advertised or have some Independent Alliance supporters been appointed to internal positions? I do not know the answers to those questions because I did not bother researching the matter, but given the Minister's stance on such issues, I expect that is not the case.

My fear is that the Bill will facilitate greater political patronage because it does not set out the criteria to be met by the lay members of the new commission or from where these members will come. They could be appointed through the public appointments process, which means party members could apply and be appointed to sit on the commission as lay members. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan's Private Members' Bill, on the other hand, stipulated that the commission should include nominees of the Free Legal Advice Centres and Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, respectively. The Bill before us includes no such stipulation. Deputy Calleary referred to having representatives of the disability sector and new communities sit on the commission, whereas the Bill makes no such recommendation. There is no requirement that the three persons whose names will be submitted to the Government be selected on the basis of ability and the Government of the day is not required to accept any of the recommended appointments. It can reject all three nominees and proceed to make an alternative appointment.

Is it not ironic that the Minister, Deputy Ross, who wants to eliminate political appointments, has rejected the recommendation of the Mahon tribunal that appointments to the National Transport Authority be made by an independent commission, choosing instead to retain the power of appointment to the authority. This is a case of "Do as I say, not as I do".

The Attorney General is a political appointment and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the Attorney General will sit on the commission proposed by the Government and at Cabinet. This matter hardly amounts to a complete removal of political influence from the process.

A number of speakers highlighted the proposal to ask the Chief Justice to sit on a committee which he or she will not chair. To be fair to the Government, I imagine many of its members are holding their noses and compromising on the Bill to retain the support of the Minister, Deputy Ross. Nevertheless, this provision shows disrespect towards the most senior judicial officeholder in the State and its key legal office.

A number of speakers pointed out that a layperson chairs the judicial appointments commission in Scotland. While that it is correct, the chief justice of Scotland does not sit on that country's judicial appointments commission. The commission reports to the chief justice who, in turn, reports to the Scottish Government. Is it not amazing that Sinn Féin cites the Scottish model in support of this legislation? I am not overly enthused or excited by the fact the Minister is happy to accept the support of a party that once used to spend its time threatening members of the Judiciary. While it no longer threatens the Judiciary, it does not use it because it has its own kangaroo courts.

Nowhere in the legislation is it specified what qualities a person will need to possess to be appointed a judge. It is important to set out in legislation the qualities a person who takes up such an important role must have. While these may seem obvious, we should specify that they must be persons of high integrity, independence of mind and moral courage and must have a high level of intellectual skill, a sound temperament and common sense and be impartial, objective, fair and composed. The Fianna Fáil Party set out these criteria in its proposals. One wonders why they are not set out in the Bill.

As I stated, it is wrong that the Chief Justice will not be asked to chair the new committee. My constituency colleague, Deputy Penrose, stated there is a rumour that he will some day serve on the Bench. Given that we come from the same village and fish out of the same pond for votes, I hope that day comes sooner rather than later. In all seriousness, however, the Deputy is correct that if one asks someone to chair an interview board for a teaching post, hospital surgeon position or any other job, one will ask a person with the relevant experience to do the job. If the Minister, Deputy Ross, is serious about what he says, school principals would never sit on an interview board because they would choose their friends to be part of their team. What tends to happen is that the captain of the team picks the best person to serve on the team. When one sees how the Minister is performing in his Department and the Trojan horse he has introduced to reform the judicial appointments system, which everyone agrees needs to be reformed, one wonders whether the captain of this team picked the right people to serve in government.

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