Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it was today but it may have been mentioned yesterday too and, perhaps, will be again tomorrow.

Given our concern around what the Council of Europe and GRECO have stated about the Bill, it is worth noting that the Council of Europe has pushed for and called for greater diversity in our Judiciary. There was a report last year which found that only 28% of the 43 countries in the Council of Europe had reached their targets for balanced representation of women and men. That is to take just one starting point on diversity. This is not an abstract concept. This provision can be strengthened and made more practical. For example, the inclusion of the issue of disability has to be considered because 18% of the population has a disability. We have equality grounds and a new public duty on equality and human rights which require every single public body in the State and Department, including the new commission, to take active steps to promote equality across all of the equality grounds and go wider to promote human rights. This is an active duty.

If there was such a difficult dilemma as we were told, one would wonder how all of these public bodies and Departments are approaching their legal requirement in this regard. It is a requirement and there are ways to do it. In many cases, it is not simply to say I will ask the applicant a set of questions. It is about how the invitation is framed. It is about how the Bill should signal these are the kinds of voices which are welcome and will be part of the discussion. It is about where one places the advertisement when it comes to these matters. It is about what the Public Appointments Service puts out when it requests people to apply. It is about the invitation.

Diversity is sorely needed in the Judiciary. There are key concerns which have been recognised everywhere. That is why there has been such a global push to improve our Judiciary. It may be worth bearing in mind that when we talk about reflecting the diversity of the population as a whole, there is also a precedent for that in our courts, namely, jury membership. There is a merit which is recognised in the idea that one will be judged and heard by one's peers. That is part of something that our Judiciary can bring to decisions.

Merit is a red herring. We had a long go at the merit argument where we were told there were no women at all with merit and it was an awful pity. That is why we had to have only 16% of women in the Dáil. Thanks to a proactive and constructive measure of invitation, we will see quite a lot of women making quite a lot of substantial contributions across both Houses of the Oireachtas. That is one example of where the merit argument had previously been used.