Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are providing that a lawyer or a public servant with legal qualifications can apply for this position. If we confined this to people who have a minimum of seven years practical experience representing employees or employers in employment cases before the LRC, we would rule out many perfectly qualified applicants. The system will be that the PAS will select people based on suitability and the best candidates will win but I will not exclude people who might have all the relevant strengths, including legal experience, but who do not have the specific requirement of seven years practical experience that the Senators have set out. It is unnecessary to confine this and a more general provision provides for a wider range of applicants. The PAS will select the best qualified person, bearing in mind all the attributes of the applicants rather than one dimension.