Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to respond to the point the Minister made about the Attorney General. It is interesting that section 10 provides that the Attorney General will be one of the members of the commission. If amendments Nos. 15 and 21, in the Minister's name are made, the commission will comprise 17 persons. The reason the Attorney General referred to it as a dog's dinner is clear; the way in which the anomaly in section 10 is proposed to be rectified is rather messy. It is interesting that the Attorney General is still included as a member of the commission, as is the case in the section 10, whereas both my amendment No. 14 and amendment No. 13, as proposed by Senator Clifford-Lee, do not include the Attorney General. That is in keeping with the position of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, ICCL, which sought significant reform in 2014, including the abolition of the JAAB. It advised the Government to remove the Attorney General, as a political appointee, from the appointments process, believing that this would be in keeping with measures taken against the potential for political favouritism. It is interesting that the recommendation is not followed here.

Amendment No. 17 is a stand-alone amendment from Sinn Féin which seeks to remove the reference to the Attorney General in section 10. I am interested to hear a little more about why that recommendation from the ICCL was not followed. It had recommended a lay majority on the new body. The latter seems to be out of step with the package of reforms that is otherwise being proposed. It is an amendment I hope to press, although I may reserve the right to press it at Report Stage.