Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Shame on those who have done deals in the background. The responsibilities of Members of these Houses is to deliver good legislation. We put a lot of work into this, as did several others. We want to legislate well. The media do not listen to the legislation that comes from this House, and we could not care less about it, but we do care about how legislation is delivered. We want to have our names attached to things that have been done well. This is not being done well. This is horse trading of the worst type, and nothing short of it. The Minister, Deputy Ross, campaigned on this issue to remove politics from the appointment of judges in Ireland. We are not working towards that now. We are moving away from that aim. We are taking the legal influence out of it and increasing the political influence. We are decreasing the legal influence, provided by those who know what is going on, and increasing the political influence. That is what this Bill will do. It is a sham. I do not believe for a second that the Minister believes we are going in the right direction on this. He should tell the truth and admit it.

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