Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

4 o’clock

Although the Minister, Deputy Ross, has been a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas for 37 years, his comments displayed an extraordinary lack of political maturity. I fully recognise that a Minister is entitled to speak on other topics, in a way that I as a spokesperson for justice and equality am also entitled to speak on other areas. I was pointing out, however, that it is extraordinary that a Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is prepared to sit through all of the Report Stage amendments. I have no objection to the Minister, Deputy Ross, speaking on Second Stage when he did, or coming in at the end to give his speech when the Bill is passed or defeated. To have him sitting here for all of the Bill amendments while we have a crisis in our transport system is simply alarming. It underlines once again what this Bill is. It is a vanity project for the Minister, Deputy Ross.

The Minister also criticised me. He gave me the credit of stating that I am a representative of Dublin Bay South, which is my constituency. He said that I stand here and speak as part of a vested interest on behalf of the Law Library. I will not apologise to a former stockbroker for the fact that I am a barrister. I am very proud to be a barrister. When I come to the House, I speak on behalf of Fianna Fáil and on behalf of my constituents in Dublin Bay South. I do not speak on behalf of anybody else. The Minister, Deputy Ross, and I have no objection when it comes to the involvement the Law Library should have in the judicial appointments commission. The Minister's proposed legislation says that there should be one person nominated to the commission by the Bar Council. I agree with that. The Minister is also trying to put a second barrister onto the commission by including the Attorney General. The Minister wants two barristers on the commission and I only wanted one. The Minister needs to get his statistics correct.

As well as launching an extraordinary attack on the Judiciary by stating that their appointments are rotten, he then went on to make an even more extraordinary attack on the lay members of the current Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, JAAB. Now the villains are the politicians who appoint judges, the judges on JAAB who advise on the recommendation of judges, and the lay people who are JAAB. We must realise that there is only one solution to this problem. Let the Minister, Deputy Ross, pick every judge in the country.

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