Rónán Mullen (Independent)

It comes down to how the Executive sees the Legislature. It comes down to the arrogance of power and how sometimes a Department of State and the Civil Service may not feel it necessary to apprise legislators, privately or on the record, of certain relevant facts when, by putting those relevant facts before the legislators, the possible appearance of any wrongdoing would be removed. The information put before us today by the Minister is a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has gone. We had to harry him. I remind him that I was extremely fair to him. I did not put it to him that he was guilty of under-informing the House. I said that either he had reason to be annoyed with his officials or with the Defence Forces for not telling him enough so that he could brief us in full, or we have reason to be annoyed with him. I stand over that, without taking in any way from the bona fides of the person whose appointment last year ran into trouble. I put it on the record that that person had not been successful in accessing posts in the legal service on a couple of occasions. I did not do that to humiliate anybody, but due to the lack of transparency, it is important that we know the individual circumstances behind this case. I am now happy to put on the record that to my knowledge, that person has done the State some service indeed, particularly in the context of Army deafness. There has been no attempt on my part - nor from any Fianna Fáil colleagues, from what I have heard here - to put at issue the competence of this person or any suggestion that he does not deserve the gratitude of the Army and the State for good service over the years.

It was noted by Senator O'Donovan that the gentleman in question had been promoted to the position of colonel and Senator O'Donovan immediately acknowledged that there was nothing wrong with that. I would second that. In fact, it is required under the law that in order to take up the post of military judge, one would have to be appointed to the level of colonel. In the unlikely event that either the Minister or I would be elected Pope some day, we would have to be ordained bishops before we could take up the post.