Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----because it is designed to subvert the capacity, duty, right and the autonomy of the Government to make decisions about who should be Chief Justice and who should not.

There are good things in this Bill. I am not going to pretend that it is all bad. The principle of an open and fair method for people wanting to be appointed to the Judiciary to go to a neutral body for evaluation before the Government makes its decision is both good and internationally recognised. Throughout the common law world, as well as in the civil law world, it is accepted as an international norm. Nobody is arguing with that principle. The idea that legal academics of certain types be eligible for appointment to the Judiciary is also a good idea; I have no problem with that in principle. However, every ten years or so a leading lawyer has been appointed directly to the Supreme Court, one of who was Niall St. John McCarthy, one of the dissenting minority in the case taken by Senator Norris. He was one of the most brilliant judges of our era. I do not want to personalise things, but at the moment there would be general acceptance that one of the other great advocates of our era is Donal O'Donnell, who was appointed directly to the Supreme Court by the Government. My late friend, Adrian Hardiman, was appointed directly to the Supreme Court, having been a barrister.