Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All of us would agree with what my colleagues have said. This includes most of the parties in Opposition with the exception of Sinn Féin. I think this is an aspect of this as well. The Minister seems to be content with allowing a below-standard piece of legislation to be passed in a ham-fisted and amateurish way. It damages the Department and the Minister. The Minister is allowing the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport - by means of the comments he made over the past number of months - to damage our Judiciary. Can someone tell me which judges have been appointed incorrectly to courts in our country since Independence? The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has raised questions about appointments by saying that they were due to cronyism and political deals. Which judges does he think should not be serving right now? Which judges do Deputy Ó Laoghaire and Sinn Féin think should not be serving right now? That is the issue that is fundamental to what they want to do here in appointing a commission with a majority of lay people - of people who may very well have an axe to grind with certain members of the Judiciary. I put it to them that probably many members of Sinn Féin may have an axe to grind with certain members of the Judiciary as well.

What we are trying to do here is very serious. For the first time since 1995, the Government is changing how judges are appointed. I do not believe the system was broken and I do not think the Minister believes that either. At the whim of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, and in order to keep the Government going with the support of Sinn Féin, which did not actually recognise many of the courts 40 years ago let alone the Judiciary itself, the Minister is willing to take a hammer and change how appointments are made. I really believe that the manner in which this debate has unfolded and also that in which these amendments have been dealt with mean that as part of a duty of care to ensure that legislation is robust, the Minister must withdraw the Bill and start again. When the public looks in from the outside at how this has been dealt with by the Department, it raises further questions about the latter and about the operation of the Cabinet and how it is proceeding, with the support of Sinn Féin, to fundamentally change how judges are appointed. What is being done is absolutely wrong. The Minister should withdraw this legislation now.

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