Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, Senator Clifford-Lee. She must attend another meeting and apologises for not being here.Fianna Fáil will be supporting the Bill and is committed to strengthening the measures contained in it. As the Minister has outlined, the country has been very well served by the Judiciary and that has been internationally recognised. The establishment of a judicial council by the Bill will ensure continued public confidence in judicial integrity. Fianna Fáil has long called for the introduction of a procedure for investigating allegations of judicial misconduct. The public currently has no formal procedure through which to make a complaint against a member of the Judiciary. I ask the Minister to clarify in his closing remarks whether it is open to members of the public to make a complaint to the president of the court of which a judge is a member. Has he any statistics in respect of the number of complaints that the presidents receive in that regard?

In 2010, the former Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, published a scheme for a judicial council Bill. It sought to establish a judicial council to investigate allegations of judicial misconduct and provide options for dealing with misconduct where the nature of the misconduct warranted investigation and action but was not sufficiently serious to call for the removal of the judge from office. Much like the Bill before the House today, the council was to be an independent body charged with the promotion of excellence in the exercise by judges of their judicial functions. The 2011 Fine Gael-Labour Party programme for Government contained a commitment to establish a judicial council. Regrettably, like so many other promises in that programme for Government, that was not delivered upon. However, I am glad a similar Bill is now before the House.

Fianna Fáil believes that one major flaw in the Bill is that it provides for inquiries into the misconduct of judges to be held in private under section 55 and that reprimanded judges will not be named. Fianna Fáil will table amendments to remove that secrecy. If a judge is reprimanded, the public is entitled to be informed of his or her identity. The goal of the Bill, which is to improve public confidence in the administration of justice, is undermined if the identity of judges who are sanctioned is kept secret.

The Bill includes provision for the establishment of a sentencing information committee to collate information on sentences imposed by the courts and to share that information with judges and other persons. Fianna Fáil believes in the need for improving consistency in criminal sentencing and is committed to achieving that. It introduced the Judicial Sentencing Commission Bill in 2013 which sought to support judges in their decision making while maintaining their independence. While the Bill before the House today goes some way to improving consistency in sentencing, we believe that we should proceed with our judicial sentencing Bill as the proposals in the Judicial Council Bill do not go far enough.

From my own experience in court as a defendant and a witness, I was very impressed by the workload the Judiciary in the District Court deals with on a daily basis. In my experience as a defendant in minor cases such as speeding and as a witness in some other cases in that court, they do so very professionally and humanely and are very overworked.

All Members are familiar with the term "if it is not broken, do not fix it" but there has been an attempt by some members of Government who do not have direct responsibility for the appointment of judges to interfere in that process. As both the Minister and I have said, the country has been well served by the Judiciary. The appointment of judges should remain the constitutional function of the Government and the process that is in place is sufficient and should be left alone.

There are other issues I would like to be dealt with but they are not up for debate today. As I raised with the Minister's predecessor, the retirement age of a judge of the District Court is 65, although they are entitled to apply on a yearly basis for extensions up to the age of 70. That is demeaning to them and they should be entitled to retire at 70, the age at which judges of the other courts may retire. That age should be raised to 72 for all judges because it takes a number of years to build up the expertise needed to become a judge and if a person is appointed in his or her 60s it gives them very limited time to exercise that function. That should be considered. It is not relevant to today's Bill but it should be discussed further down the road.

Fianna Fáil is very happy to support the Bill and we look forward to the Minister's closing remarks.