Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When it was a council of 11 he was very unhappy with its make-up, and we all were. I was certainly unhappy, and I said as much at the time. I said that we have other people watching us. Only last year, a report from the Group of States against Corruption, GRECO, a Council of Europe body, put further pressure on the Government to pass the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017. I acknowledged that. At the same time, GRECO found Ireland to be "globally unsatisfactory", particularly in the area of judicial appointments and independence. Those are not my words. They are from GRECO, a European body. I do not know what kind of deal the Minister has cobbled together with Deputy Ross and other parties. The Irish Timesreported:

GRECO said Ireland was also not in compliance with its recommendation that a structure be established to deal with judges’ pay in a way that would safeguard the “integrity and professional quality” of the bench.

We must do that. Judges have a difficult job. Since the foundation of the State, and in more recent times with the Special Criminal Court during the Troubles, they have had a hard job in the main. However we must also have refresher courses. I have been saying it for years. If someone is appointed a judge today, they are a judge for life. I do not think any judge has ever been impeached or left. Perhaps one. It does not happen. GRECO rejected the Government's response, that the new Public Service Pay Commission would deal with these issues.

It stated it could not see how the commission would protect judges' independence when it came to setting their pay and pension conditions. Quite frankly, I would find it hard to see how it would, as would most people. It also noted there is no formal code of conduct for Irish judges. The group noted that work to establish a code of conduct was started in 2011 by the then Government, of which the Minister was a supporter, but it is yet to be completed. GRECO also stated, moreover, that in the current situation, including the fact the judicial council has not yet been established, no accountability mechanism is in place.

As was reported inThe Irish Timeslast year, another European report found that almost one third of Irish judges believed judges were appointed by the Government for reasons other than merit, and this is very concerning. The Minister, Deputy Ross, claimed all of the time that he wanted to depoliticise these appointments, but I do not know what he has done now. It has become a right mess. There is a row about who will be on it and who will not be on it. He was so anti-quango all his life, when I read about him, met him and for the past ten years since I came in here. A quango was an abhorrent being to him. He wrote about it every time he got a chance and spoke about it here loudly when he was in opposition, up where Teachta Clare Daly is ina suí anocht, proclaiming that quangoland was a waste and scandalous. He spoke about political interference and jobs for the boys, but now he wants to have a quango that is superfat. If it was an animal going to any factory it would be degraded for having too much fat. It would definitely be culled and gone out as meat for export but not for human consumption.

He seems to have lost the plot since he got into government. I do not know what the Government is doing to him inside in the Cabinet room, but I would like to be a fly on the wall. I think they have him terrorised because he is like a rabbit in the headlights and he does not know whether he is coming or going. He is head before face and face before someplace else. I do not know what we are going to do with him. This legislation can expect a difficult passage because it is all over the place. A lot of his basic credentials when elected here were that he wanted to rid the country of quangos, and now he wants to set up one of the fattest ones. A mixed bag of licorice allsorts would not be a patch on this. I certainly cannot support it and I have a lot more points to make on it later.

See this speech in context