David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree totally with the sentiments expressed in this amendment but I have some questions about it. For example, it is proposed in subsection (1)(a) that members "shall, in performing their functions under and in connection with this Act, uphold judicial independence," but that is taken for granted and it is the way in which things should operate. How does one assess that? How does one find out whether people have acted in this way?

People on the fundamentalist right are as cute as pet foxes. They have learned an awful lot over the past 30 or 40 years and they are not going to come out charging at something. It will not be Senator Mullen or "Hujab Makapele" from Ballygobackwards who will do it; they will smuggle in a stool pigeon with no public record at all.