John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is obviously a degree of urgency to enact legislation around the area of judicial appointments. I understand there are a number of appointments that have not been made to the Court of Appeal and that dates for cases in the Court of Appeal are now being set in 2020. The first question I ask the Minister is whether judicial appointments now are effectively frozen because that is a political issue the Government has allowed happen on the one hand while, at the same time, we have to address this legislation.

The Ceann Comhairle's note indicated that if we were doing things again we would probably do them slightly differently and that after the Government's proposal to increase the commission membership from 13 to 17 was rejected, the subsequent amendments would not have been taken. As it transpired they were taken, and therein lies the confusion. While the Ceann Comhairle has said, and the Minister has agreed, that we can refer the Bill to the Seanad, amend it and revert to this House, the real concern is that if the Bill is subsequently challenged and the debate is referred to in terms of the intent of the Dáil, it then becomes very unclear because on the one hand we voted that there would be 13 members on the commission but on the other hand we added three additional members, being the Presidents of the Circuit Court and the District Court and the Attorney General. When that debate arises, the question will be whether it is 13 members and who the three additional people are replacing.

6 o’clock

It has added serious confusion. The Minister knows as well as I that when a Bill is challenged in this way, it is frequently the case that the transcripts of the debate in the Dáil are needed in order to understand what Members were trying to deal with. I agree with Deputy McGuinness that the correct procedure would be to withdraw the Bill and start again properly. It would add the level of clarity that is required.

I asked the Minister about what will be the annual running cost of the commission, particularly when he said it was a 17-member commission. I alluded to a figure of €1 million and the Minister told me subsequently it was €500,000. I want to put on the record that this figure of €1 million comes from the explanatory memorandum. I do not want the Minister to think we are exaggerating the figure. They are the figures the Minister presented to the House.

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