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

I am concerned that we are undoing a system that has served this country well for more than 100 years just to satisfy one Minister who is supporting the Government. It is about keeping him on side in order that he will continue to support the Government. He has been promoting this proposal for many years even before he was elected to this Dáil. It is clear that our Judiciary has been exemplary in all those years and in spite of everything, it is clear to me and many others that judges gave fair, honest and impartial judgment on whoever came before them over the years.

The Bill indicates a change in the way judges are to be appointed. My worry is that lay persons will be recruited by the Public Appointments Service. Who will select those who will effect that recruitment? Will it not be done by the Cabinet, the Government or Members? How could that be right? There will be lay people selecting judges who may or may not have any idea of how to select a judge according to competency, fairness and ability, which is most important. Is that going to be a consideration at all? I am very worried about this. The proposal is for a lay majority, which is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot see how that would be fair at all. The Bar Council is totally opposed to this idea of lay persons being in charge of judicial appointments. It is correct in that assessment. I cannot see how lay members in this job could have the experience that judges accumulate over years on the bench, dealing with all the aspects, problems and cases that come before them. How could lay members have that knowledge in the space of a couple of years?

It is absurd to think that is where we are, just to please one Minister and to keep him on side. It is bad enough what he is doing to people in rural Ireland but if he gets away with doing this to our justice system, it will make a farce of the whole thing. There would be a lay chair recruited by the Public Appointments Service, which is totally absurd and wrong. The majority would have to be lay members but there must be an ability to form a strategic objective and provide leadership to implement changes to the body.

Very good people could come forward, but we are exposing ourselves to the unknown. We already know what we have in place. I ask the Government to go back and look at what it is doing. It just wants to satisfy the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. That is ridiculous.

Again, I ask the Minister for Justice and Equality about the Public Appointments Service? Who will appoint those involved? Judges have always provided fair and honest judgments. They had the experience to do so because many of them started off as solicitors and progressed up the line and became District Court or Circuit Court judges and, eventually, High Court judges. That was the right way to do it. It has worked, as I said, for over 100 years.

I appeal to the Government to take another look at what it is doing because I believe we are going down the wrong road in what we are doing with this Bill. As the earlier speakers have said, we now hear the Bill is getting support from Sinn Féin. There must be something happening. Then Sinn Féin elects a Fine Gael Senator to the vacant Seanad seat.

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