David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps a little unusually, I am not greatly distressed by the Government's phraseology in this section as it seems to be perfectly reasonable. There are four cardinal points, with the first being that appointments should be made on merit. The next objective would be that there would be an equality of men and women. The third point is that diversity should be reflected and the final very important issue is that some members of the Judiciary should have a competence in the Irish language. I think about the trial that Mr. James Joyce wrote about of Mr. Michael Joyce on the Aran Islands where there was a grotesque miscarriage of justice because the unfortunate islander could not understand English. He was not properly represented and it was an appalling case. I doubt anything like that could occur-----