Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----blood lust and ego in this matter.

Let us be clear about what is being proposed. There is nothing wrong with the idea of a judicial appointments commission. There is nothing at all wrong with having lay people on it. If the commission comes up with a list of people, there is nothing wrong with it expressing preferences in order of choice. These are not wrong in principle. Where the Bill goes much too far is that it does not differentiate between the types of judicial appointments made. Yesterday in these Houses we had statements on the decriminalisation of homosexuality by statute under the ministry of Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. This brought to my mind the circumstances in which our colleague, Senator Norris, litigated in the courts of our land to seek to have the criminalisation provisions of the 1885 Act ruled as unconstitutional. It is interesting that the Supreme Court, by a majority of three to two, refused him the relief he sought. I was thinking about the two people who held with him in very fine judgments. I think I am right in saying they were Mr. Justice McCarthy and Mr. Justice Henchy and these were models of jurisprudence.