Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will get onto Sinn Féin in a minute.

None of the Members who believe this is important, urgent legislation is here. This is not a criticism of the Minister of State but the new Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, should be here to listen to these contributions. I actually think the reason he is not here is because he does not believe in the legislation and because his predecessor was browbeaten into this at Cabinet by the Minister, Deputy Ross, who I will get to in a minute. The Minister, Deputy Ross, should just concentrate on trying to get something done in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and not stick his oar into the area of justice, because he has proved over the last few months how little he actually knows on the topic. It is telling, however, that the Minister of State is the only member of Fine Gael here. We have no member of Cabinet here and no one from Sinn Féin either.

When I looked at the legislation, I also looked at who was supporting it. We are talking here about changing the judicial system and the structures that have served this State very well since Independence. Will anyone here tell me there has been an issue with the probity of our judicial system? Has there been an issue with the independence of our judicial system? Is there, or has there ever been, an issue with the standard and quality of the people appointed? I do not think so. I think that we should be very proud of how the Judiciary has functioned through very difficult times since Independence. These included some particularly difficult times through the foundation of this State, through the Second World War and through the terrorist campaign perpetrated in this country by many of the Members who could not have been bothered to be here today from the Provisional Sinn Féin movement. Many of these people, having tried to-----

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