Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

You raised the good weather, a Chathaoirligh, and it is great to see so many people in the capital city enjoying themselves at concerts and outdoor events. However, there has been a downside to that due to the excessive use of alcohol and public order offences. With an increasing number of outdoor events it is necessary to have a set of standards nationwide to ensure the safety of young people, and not so young people in the case of Billy Joel, attending concerts and open air events with regard to policing, access to alcohol and the general inconvenience for neighbouring properties in respect of noise. Certainly, things went badly wrong in the case of the open air events in the RDS and we were very lucky not to end up with any fatalities. The Killers concert on Sunday night was an example of what can go wrong in the vicinity of an open air event when there are no proper safeguards for the public attending it. There is a need for guidelines. This is not just a Dublin issue. Open air events take place throughout the country.

Turning to an equally serious matter, I wish to raise the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 which is currently before the House and is due to be debated today. Grave concerns have been raised about it not only by our senior judges, who have said clearly that there has been no indepth consultation on the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross's Bill, which is being taken through the House by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, but also by the European watchdog, which has poured scorn on the Bill. The Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, GRECO, is due to issue a report shortly. I am gravely concerned about giving consideration to the Bill before that report has been published and the Government comments on it. We are putting ourselves in the same position as Poland and other eastern European countries. While the Bill is considered very important by the Minister, Deputy Ross, and certainly he has a level of vanity about it, we must take account of the greater interest regarding how our judges are appointed and how we safeguard the Judiciary and its independence.

With that in mind I am proposing the following amendment to the Order of Business, that Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 not be taken before September to enable the Seanad to receive and consider the as yet unpublished report touching on the issue from the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption and to consider the Government response, if any, to that report.