Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

-----states. For the first time, the legislation opens up eligibility for appointment to this tribunal to a wider group of legal professionals who have expertise. It moves away from this being a closed shop appointment confined to a small group of individuals. I do not believe it is in the public interest that we maintain the current position. I also say to both Senators, had the difficulty that occurred last August or September not occurred, and had I been in office and looked at this legislation and the narrow confines of the group of individuals who could be appointed, I would have been looking to bring forward reforming legislation. This would have been in the same context as more than a decade ago because I was concerned as long ago as the early 1990s that the pool of individuals for the selection of High Court, Circuit Court and Supreme Court judges was confined to members of the Bar. I thought it incredible that we had thousands of solicitors around the country who could not be appointed to those positions.

On that occasion I was the moving party in commencing a process which resulted in the change to our courts legislation which now allows for the appointment of solicitors all the way from the District Court - to which they could always have been appointed - up to the Supreme Court. We need to widen the pool of lawyers of expertise who can be appointed to adjudicating positions. This legislation is part of that type of reform. This is a reforming measure to bring eligibility criteria into the 21st century and not to confine it and lock it down to a small group of individuals.

I hope that, before Senator O'Donovan responds, Senators would accept my good faith in this regard. Why would I want to cover up something that was a mess created under the watch of the previous Government? I ask if someone can explain that to me because I do not understand it and it makes no sense. I want to solve a problem. I want to get this appointment made appropriately from a pool of qualified individuals and to resolve the log-jam that has occurred and to make the legislation function.