Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like other colleagues I welcome the opportunity to address this Bill, but at the outset I wish to put on record how disappointed I am that we are spending time here discussing this Bill today at a time when there are so many other issues that are of the gravest concern. The Minister for Justice and Equality is well aware of issues in his area that we could be addressing. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, is well aware of issues in his jurisdiction that are far more important and critical to the daily lives of many people than this issue. As a constituency worker, the same as everybody who is elected to this House, I can state that nobody has come to me in recent times requesting or suggesting that this legislation is either necessary or is of such profound importance that we should be debating it here today. I add my voice to those of other speakers who have listed the kind of issues we should be addressing. I will elaborate further on that in the course of my contribution.

It is appalling that Fine Gael has rolled over for the Minister, Deputy Ross. I cannot fathom it. Fine Gael, based on the spread of representation it has, is a party which fully understands the vast array of issues that matter to the lives of so many people. It is not about spreading blame for the existence of those issues but we are elected here to try to resolve them, in so far as we can. We are facilitating the existence of the Government, notwithstanding our desire to implement our own manifesto, because we recognised that could not happen as we were not in a position to make it happen. We swallowed our pride and we facilitated the emergence of a Government in order that the country could be governed. Others, including Sinn Féin, who interestingly enough are supporting this Bill but who are not here, sat on their hands. We tried to identify areas that were unique to us in terms of our manifesto and we sought some compromise from the hardest ravages of what Fine Gael would do if the party was left to its own devices. It does pain all of us on this side of the House that we are left debating this instrument of which the impact at best will be minimal.

It is unfathomable why the Government did not engage with Deputy O'Callaghan, who brought forward a Bill that was proportionate in response to the issue of ensuring that the appointment of judges was transparent and there was a perception of transparency. If one goes back and looks at the appointment of judges, notwithstanding for whom they cast their ballots, by and large they were of the highest standard. I see nothing in this Bill that suggests this approach provides any greater capacity to address the perceived problem than the Bill devised by Deputy O'Callaghan would have done. I really am at a loss. We on this side of the House believe in reform. The Bill Deputy O'Callaghan proposed was based on the establishment of a judicial appointments commission that would be fully independent of Government and would make recommendations to the Government with an appropriate, independent assessment based on the merits of the judicial application. That is reform but perhaps it did not meet the test set by the Minister, Deputy Ross, who seems to want to leave blood on the floor and settle old scores that seem to have preyed on his mind for decades. There is obviously something in his past that makes him want to level the playing pitch in terms of the Judiciary. I fail to understand what it is. Perhaps it would be appropriate for him at some point to clearly outline those issues.

The Ministers of State, Deputies Moran and Finian McGrath, generally come to the House in a spirit of co-operation. Such Deputies are sometimes elected on single issues. They are not getting their legislation through but the Minister, Deputy Ross, is. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, knows well that Fine Gael has rolled over yet again to keep the Minister, Deputy Ross, happy. He was not satisfied with getting the Stepaside Garda station re-opened in return for allowing the Attorney General to move on and make space for one of Fine Gael's own members to fill that position. I do not question in any way the right of the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, to appoint the individual he saw fit.

The fact that he happens to be a member of Fine Gael is of no concern to me because I have every expectation that the Attorney General will discharge his duties in line with the Constitution and by his best lights. The fact that he was a member of Fine Gael is, to me, an irrelevance and it should also be irrelevant to the Minister, Deputy Ross, but it clearly is not.

On the occasion of achieving the Stepaside Garda station re-opening, I understand that the Minister, Deputy Ross struggled with his conscience. A mighty battle ensued around the Cabinet table. At least- that is what we are told by certain informed sources in the media. We are told there was also a mighty struggle of conscience last weekend when, yet again, the Minister, Deputy Ross was on a knife edge. His posterior must be sore from sliding along that knife over the last weeks. He must be in pain. The Minister, Deputy Ross, won out when the conscience lost yet again. He seems to have been so happy after that Cabinet encounter and after beating his conscience into submission that he awarded himself a round of applause around the Cabinet table. He was so impressed with defeating the conscience and in getting what he wanted from Cabinet. He is happy. He was the great defender of the public good as a Senator, as a publicist, as a panellist, as a columnist, as an author and as a backbencher but in truth, when he got in here he could not resist putting his snout to the very bottom of the pork barrel to help himself to the fattiest and tastiest piece of flesh, I assume to fortify himself for the next election campaign in Dublin Rathdown and he needs fortification. If we look at the track record of the Minister, Deputy Ross, over recent months he will need some fortification when he knocks on the doors of the good people of Dublin Rathdown.

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