Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I remember working in London when I was about 15 and a half or 16 and talking to builders, and they used to always say to me that the worst foremen they ever had were those who came from their own class. Class distinction, diversity, all these things are a frame of mind. I am not for one minute condemning Senator Ruane for what she is trying to do here but we need to go much further back than the Judiciary. The only complaint I have ever had with the Judiciary in my entire life was that Attorneys General almost had an automatic right to be elevated to judge. As far as I recall - I am sure my colleague, Senator McDowell, will correct me - only one Attorney General in the history of the State was prevented from having a private practice while practising as Attorney General. Senator McDowell may or may not agree with that.

Like my colleague, Senator Higgins, I have difficulty with the provisions relating to the chairperson. I do not believe we should be talking about excluding the Chief Justice. Ireland has been served well, by and large, by its Judiciary and it would be patently wrong to put some civilian in place of a qualified judge to chair these committees. I trust our Judiciary - I have to. If we cannot trust the Judiciary, there is nothing left. I will ask the Minister this: if we were to appoint a cardiologist or cardiac surgeon in the morning, would we want that person to be appointed by a non-medical professional? Having lain on a cardiologist's table to have a couple of stents put in, I certainly want the guy doing it to know what he is on about, and I want to know that the person who appoints that person knows who he or she is appointing. I do not want someone who is not qualified appointing people to senior positions. I would have the same difficulty in respect of a civilian or legally non-qualified chairperson. Then, when we go down through the various parts of the Bill defining a layperson, we see he or she shall never have held a judicial office or been Attorney General. By the time one has finished going down through this, one can see that anyone who has any smattering of legal knowledge at all is immediately debarred. What sort of nonsense is this?

We have tried today to slow down this Bill in order that we might look at this GRECO report. Like my colleague, Senator Boyhan, who has left for a few moments, I want to see the Minister's Bill go through, flawed and all as it is, with the amendments we are proposing. However, I will use every single second available in the Seanad and every ounce of my energy to prevent the Bill's passage until we see the GRECO report. What is in the report that the Minister is afraid to show us? Has he seen it? If he has seen it, when did he see it and what is so wrong with it that he is not prepared to publish it-----