Derek McDowell (Labour)

Arising from the Minister of State's concluding comments on Second Stage, will she take me through the self-incrimination argument again? It is accepted, and is obviously a matter of law under the 1997 Act, that anything said during the course of the process cannot be used in the courts to sustain a criminal trial or anything of that kind. Surely, however, self-incrimination also applies to the integrity of this process in that we are obliging a judge to appear before the committee and incriminate himself by providing evidence against himself within what is, if not a trial process, then certainly one in which a decision will be made that will impact seriously on him. I ask the Minister of State to deal with that point.