Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his response in that regard, and I welcome the fact that he is moving in that direction. It strikes me that what we need to do throughout society is to attack abuses of privilege, of which there are many. Some of the cuts we are carrying out - I mentioned the closure of the embassy to the Vatican, but there are others on the social welfare side - will not yield €3.6 million. It comes down to what we regard as a priority. I welcome the appointment of the judicial council, but I am critical of the judges for dragging their feet on its introduction. It is eight years since I started pushing this issue, following a visit of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights to Canada and Boston, where we saw the systems that were in place for checking judges. Of our judges, one deserved to be sacked, and another resigned and probably should have been penalised in a different way than having to concede his job, but there was no mechanism for that. One resigned with integrity; the other did not. I urge the Minister to consider this. It should be done away with now. If it is not possible to do it for some reason, I suggest that at a minimum, as natural wastage occurs among the people who are there, they should not be replaced. That would be a minimum.

If one goes to the Four Courts and looks at the medieval regalia that our judges turn out in, one can see it is an anachronism. If one goes to a court in another country, the judge arrives in his suit and is dressed like everybody else. We are a republic, for goodness' sake.