Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the subject just raised by the leader of the Fianna Fáil group, that is, the question of the judicial appointments commission legislation which is pending, there are a couple of points I would lie to make. First, as Senator Ardagh said, it is a Bill which has several significant flaws. One of them is that the Act which it seeks to amend and repeal, the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995, provided that the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board would make recommendations but would also inform the Government of the people who had expressed an interest in being appointed. The new Bill, curiously, will just say that three names will be forwarded to the Government and that no information will be given to the Minister as to who was rejected, so that the Cabinet, in looking at the three names, will effectively be like the captain of a submarine without a periscope, wondering what other people expressed an interest who were not included in the list. As I see it, it would actually be an offence under the new legislation to communicate the other people's names to the Government in this context. That is just one of the issues and I raise it to emphasise how infirm this proposed piece of legislation is.

The point I want to raise with the Leader is that it would appear a commitment has been made that this legislation will be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas before the summer recess. However, the establishment of the commission would take months thereafter. Therefore, it is not hugely important it is done by the end of this Oireachtas term. It is not as if there are appointments pending which are going to be dealt with as soon as the commission is established. I ask the Leader to give us an assurance that this House will be given adequate time, and more than that if necessary, to consider each and every provision of this legislation. The more I look at it, in particular the more I look at individual portions of the Bill, the more problems emerge. We will not be rushed in this House by any political agenda that the Minister, Deputy Ross, may have in regard to this matter. We will carry out our constitutional function, which is to examine this legislation line by line to ensure we improve it as best we can, rather than having it rushed through in order to satisfy a fairly grubby political agenda.