John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a certain sense of farce about this debate. Lay people looking in at what happens in the Dáil Chamber must be amused on the one side and saddened on the other side at what has gone on.

Certain people have been dealt a very poor hand by the Judiciary. I mentioned this earlier and I will give a bit more detail now. As we are debating a Bill dealing with reform that is needed in how we appoint judges - I take the previous speaker's point that members of the Judiciary also want reform and have asked for it - a woman, Yvonne Walsh, is in the Dóchas Centre having been sent there to purge her contempt of court. She has two children sitting their exams. She cannot purge her contempt because she does not have the power to do it. She has been in jail for nearly 21 days. She has been deprived of her human rights. She has no access to email. She is a lay-litigant. She cannot take the steps to get herself out of jail.

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