Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is all rolling into one. It is a very demanding job and if a person's health is not up to it, he or she should not apply for it. If a person applies for it while suffering ill health, the job should not be given to that person, whether it is a man or a woman. That is a sad fact perhaps for Senator Higgins to take on board but it is serious in the great majority of important constitutional positions. It is about making serious decisions about other people's lives, on child custody, imprisonment and the custody of people's homes, etc. These are life changing decisions. It is a very demanding job. If person goes into such a job with a weak heart, such that he or she is unlikely to be able to manage day long sessions and late night sittings on certain occasions, then he or she should really not be appointed, regardless of whether he or she should apply in the first place.

The equality principle can be applied all we like but some people are born with weak hearts and they are unlikely to be able to do the work. The simple fact is that making these appointments is a bit like appointing someone to be a local garda sergeant. The person's health has to be sufficient to be able to do the job. There is no point in codding ourselves or saying we are so much in favour of equality in this House that health does not matter. Health does matter. One of the greatest injustices is when litigants come before judges whose health is failing. Can they deliver reserve judgments? Can they sit long enough? Senator Higgins may say that this is a matter of capacity. It is not. Health is the issue. A person has to be reasonably healthy to be able to be a judge. It is a common-sense principle.

What does that mean in practice? When I was the Minister for Justice, there were two appointments. One was of a man with multiple sclerosis, MS. He functioned perfectly well and it was abundantly clear that it would not interfere with his capacity to discharge his functions. Another was an individual who had a congenital mobility problem and is an excellent judge. There were, however, people appointed in failing health and it caused much difficulty. They got the job, the President of the court asked them to sit and they were not able to. They were not able to sustain cases because they fell ill after three or four days and that is a serious issue.