Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Senators on framing an excellent motion. My party and I agree 100% with the sentiments that are in it. It is outrageous, frankly, how long it has taken to address this issue. It is indefensible. The Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Susan Denham, has repeatedly raised the need for this. We talk about ombudsmen, oversight and all the various institutions that have emerged over the past two decades. Clearly, there has been a need for judicial oversight. In terms of the separation of powers, that obviously has to be a judicial council. There is also a need for the training of members of the Judiciary on an ongoing basis and a need to ensure consistency in sentencing, accountability and so on. It is absolutely vital. I would argue it is fundamental to our democracy. I hope the Minister of State's comments today will give some indication of a timeframe in which we will see a Bill and this issue moving forward.

I want to make some related comments on the issue of judicial appointments. It is very unfortunate that there has been a perception that some members of the Judiciary were appointed not because of their ability but because of their political affiliations. That is unfortunate because I believe if someone has been a member of or an adviser to a political party, it should not rule him or her out of being appointed to the Judiciary. There is a process that is better than the one we have now. I tabled a Bill in the previous Oireachtas that laid out that there would be a shortlist of three for every judicial vacancy, that the shortlist would be given by the relevant body that is in place now to the Government to make a decision and the reasons would be published. There would be full accountability as to the reason each person had been appointed to the Judiciary. That would take away any perception of criticism or any question over the decisions the Judiciary would make.

A problem also presents itself at Supreme Court level. One of the main tasks of the Supreme Court judges is to interpret the Constitution. Obviously, it is critical that there is a Supreme Court that is representative of society. There must be a balance of progressive and conservative, of left and right within that Judiciary. If one member of the Judiciary is seen to be representative of the political establishment or to have been appointed by the political establishment, whether correct or not it impacts on confidence in the decisions that are made. The Chief Justice is rightly concerned about the delays. By the way, the Bill that I tabled was interestingly exactly the same system that the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Susan Denham, recommended herself, as it happened. She is obviously a very respected person and has been advocating for changes to the way judicial appointments are made, for more accountability and for a judicial council. We need to sort this out.

Finally, I want to comment on a sentencing council. In England and Wales, there is a commendable model of a sentencing council. I know the Minister of State is familiar with it. I am a big supporter of that system. There is a council that is significantly made up of the Judiciary, other experts from academia and so on. They consult with the wider public around the range of sentencing that is appropriate for a particular offence. There is still a degree of flexibility. One is not saying to a member of the Judiciary that he or she must give a sentence of two years for a particular offence.A range of sentences is available but whatever sentence they hand down, judges must be clear on the reasons for it. The public has been consulted about what is appropriate, a range of sentencing has been put in place and it has been ensured that the judiciary is accountable. If a decision is made in the Circuit Court in Donegal, Cork or Waterford, there must be a commonality in sentencing in order that people can have more confidence in the system. A sentencing council should be established. I published legislation on this and presented it to the previous Dáil and I may well reintroduce it in this Seanad.

The Government needs to sort out judicial appointments, introduce legislation to establish a judicial council and a sentencing council. It must be ensured the public can have full confidence in the sentencing the Judiciary is tasked with and in the training and the ongoing dialogue between judges to ensure consistency across the State.

I commend the Senators on their motion, which is spot on and which is well drafted, and I hope it will create an impetus for the Government to act in due course.