Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

It is fair to make the point that the reason we are here today following the people's decision is to ensure we do what we must do. I remember debating this issue on the other side of the other House some years ago. Rightly, everyone highlighted the fact that we could not take action because of the constitutional lacuna. Therefore, the Government's absolute commitment, supported by all parties in this House and the other House, was to hold the referendum and to follow it with a positive decision in terms of changing the law that would allow us to take this action on the pensions side.

The 2007 document of the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector was referred to. This set out new pay rates for members of the Judiciary. I gather that at the time one driver behind the proposals was that members of the Judiciary should be, by definition, close to the top of the tree among the lawyers. They would have built up a significant private practice and their total earnings in a year were significant. The point was to try to attract qualified, well-experienced counsel for the purposes of having these people as judges throughout the system. That was reflected in the 2007 report.

Following this, the 2009 report recommended a scaling back in this regard. However, we could not do so by virtue of the fact of the constitutional position on members of the Judiciary. This has changed dramatically now. In addition, we are in a totally new position given the entire fiscal crisis that afflicts the country and this has been reflected on the pay and pensions sides. However, if we are to attract well-qualified, well-experienced counsel to the Judiciary to perform the functions we call on them to perform in the Courts Service, we must have fair and competitive rates of salary. It is correct to say that given the collapse in the property market and in other sectors, members of the legal profession have seen a radical reduction in their pay in recent years. This has been reflected in other reports but it is worth noting that the purpose of our work today and in the other House some weeks ago is and has been to put in place the legislative powers to do what we always sought to do, that is, to ensure the pay and conditions of members of the Judiciary are fair and, equally important, in line with the times. The objective of the Bill is precisely to do so.