Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will, but the romance is part of what is happening to the body of the Bill because there has been a major change to it. I am sure Deputy O'Callaghan, with his expertise, will agree with me that this set out to streamline a board, and the proposed board went down in numbers, but now I believe it is back up again to 17. It is up and down like a yo-yo or a zig zag. That could not happen without political agreement. If my understanding is right, it was not with the political agreement or say-so of the real government, that is Fianna Fáil. This has happened outside of Fianna Fáil's agreement and it is with Sinn Féin and the Government, in preparation for their continued courtship in the future Government they are hoping, perhaps, to try to produce out of the courtship that is going on at present. It certainly took a lot of people by surprise.

Deputy Wallace should be commended on what he said earlier. The simple fact is that it seems to be very unsatisfactory. It seems to be in a shambles at present. I will be very interested to hear what the Minister has to say about it. Any time a Bill is brought before the House it is supposed to make a situation better but if it transpires that what someone is actually doing is using the political system to make matters worse, how are people supposed to have confidence in the political system at that stage? There was a type of affront on the Judiciary and there was talk of a major overhaul of the way the whole Judiciary was appointed and how it would be conducted in the years ahead but now it seems to be falling into a shambles. I would like further clarification. I would like to hear what can we do about it at this Stage.

I appreciate the opportunity we might have during the rest of the evening to speak on the various amendments and where we can go from here. Certainly people involved in the legal profession would be very interested in what is going on here because it is surprising, to say the least. We often heard of gerrymandering in the past, but this seems to be political gerrymandering of the worst type. People do not know where they are going with the whole situation now. We might finish up with a board of maybe one member for every county in the country at the next Stage because-----

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