Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If I am the only person to say politicians should have some role, I will happily take that angle. From experience, Ministers do have something to offer. They are setting strategy and policy and want to take the country in a certain direction. Why would we abandon having any power at all? My understanding was that the final arbitration was at the Cabinet, that the Minister had a choice between a few names and that we were holding on to the vestiges of some political investment. What I have heard the Minister say, however, is that in the committee he is proposing, he will sit in but will not have anything to do and will not dare say anything. He will just be there to convene the meeting and listen to whatever the Attorney General, the layperson and the member of the Judiciary have to say. I think that is an unnecessary abdication of political authority. If the Minister will be there, he should speak and, as a representative of the people and the Dáil, his view should be heard. A future Minister could come from any party represented here. I would like to think I am speaking on behalf of every party and grouping. Are we to completely neuter future Ministers? If that is what the rest of the House thinks, fine, but I stand against it. I stand up for keeping some power for those in political office.

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