Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concede that it is my mistake. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill, which has seen much public comment and has been subject to considerable scrutiny at various stages in the Dáil. As has already been outlined, Sinn Féin will support its passage to Committee Stage, where I will move several amendments to address some of the issues that have not been addressed in earlier stages.

While we will support the Bill on Second Stage and will allow it to pass, our support is not unqualified as there are flaws in the Bill that must be addressed in this House. I believe they can be addressed but it will take consideration and thought.There are also drafting issues requiring rectification, to which other Members have alluded. Some of these are not complicated. Confidence in the justice system is contingent on a Judiciary which is free from political control or political or any other bias. Not only must society have a Judiciary free from bias, it must also be free from the appearance of bias. That is very much in the interests of the public, despite the apathetic feel to this Bill outside the Leinster House bubble. There is an understandable perception that the Judiciary and the judicial system are removed from the experience of working class communities and working class life. If this is accurate, then it is incumbent on the judicial system to rectify this concern by being intimately aware of the experience of working class and other communities, members of whom find themselves before the courts.

It is essential that we have an independent and impartial Judiciary that is representative of the community that it serves. A truly representative Judiciary would enhance confidence in the judicial system, and that can only be welcome and positive. Future judicial appointments should be drawn from a wider pool of qualified candidates so that it is fully representative of the community, to eradicate the corrosive and unaccountable system of patronage previously in operation.

There is no doubt our courts are populated by many committed people with great legal minds who do an excellent job on a daily basis. I am not here to criticise members of the Judiciary or to do their profession down. However, that does not mean that the process for appointments is above criticism or alteration. It would be naive to believe some of the commentary on the Bill to the effect that there was no problem up until now; even Fianna Fáil has accepted that. Are we expected to believe that there is not now, nor has there every been, any system of political patronage within this jurisdiction? We know that is not the case. We do not say that those who are currently in place cannot do their jobs but the Bill is concerned with the process of how they get there in the first place, or how they will get there. I agree that judges who take the oath are impartial and independent. However, the Bill does not deal with people who are currently judges. For anyone who thinks that this is a left-wing or left-leaning view, I ask them to consider why we are discussing this in the first place. There must be a fair and accountable appointment process for the Judiciary which is representative of the public interest.