Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

One of the lessons all Members of the House believed had been learned from the Judge Curtin affair was that there was a need to put in place legislation for a judicial council, a code of ethics for judges and a fair and open system of investigating complaints made about judicial conduct. That was recommended by a report of Mr. Justice Keane as far back as 1995 and the Government said it would take such legislation through both Houses but I now learn that it will not see the light of day before the end of this session. Can the Government put on the record of this House why this legislation is not forthcoming? There has been media speculation that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has not brought it forward because he has yet to receive from the Chief Justice a full submission on a proposal he made some years ago. The Houses of the Oireachtas have been in dereliction of their duty in respect of this issue for many years and it will be appalling not to have dealt with the issue some 13 or 14 years after the first case was brought to our attention.

In 1977 a commitment was given that a minimum of 3% of those employed in the public sector would be people with a disability. Information has been given to me in the past few days to the effect that one third of local authorities, some 30 years after that commitment, have yet to reach that minimum threshold, though in some excellent local authorities 5% or 6% of employees have disabilities. If we are serious about the Disability Act 2005 and the sectoral plans the public sector must lead by example because the private sector will not do so. We must ensure the threshold is enforced throughout all local authorities.