Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have to ask ourselves whether we are going down the road of making it more or less likely that our Supreme Court, High Court and Court of Appeal in future will consist of the type of people who should be there. Will people who are in the position of, for example, Mr. Niall McCarthy, go through a process of applying to a lay group to be considered for appointment? Is it not better that someone in such a position would be tapped on the shoulder by the Government and told that he or she should be on the Supreme Court, that the Government wants to put him or her there and asked that he or she consider doing the Government the honour of accepting such a position?

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has constantly presented the contrary view but, under the Constitution, the sole right to make a decision as to who becomes a judge is vested in the Government.One cannot have a commission which can bind the hands of the Government in this respect. The Government, under the Constitution, is the sole determiner in the final analysis of who the President appoints and who it advises the President to appoint. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, especially with respect to the Supreme Court, one cannot take politics with a small "p" and non-party politics out of the appointment. These are profound political and philosophical decisions that fall to the Government of the day to decide. Maintaining a balance on the Supreme Court, whether it is Justice Ginsburg in the USA or whoever the latest person was to be appointed by President Trump-----