Seanad debates

Tuesday, 10 July 2018

Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

10:30 am

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to be in any way crabbed, but this is a very important section, and these subsections are of crucial importance as to how this commission is supposed to work. At last we have wheedled out of the Minister the suggestion that there will be a director and a small secretariat and that that is what the commission and the commissioner's office is to be. This goes back to the point I made earlier as to the kind of workload the commissioners are going to undertake and for what kind of remuneration they are going to be expected to carry out their evaluative functions.

It is all being done on a shoestring, which I have to say is deeply disappointing, because if this was to be something dramatically and radically different from the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, JAAB, which was done on a shoestring within the Courts Service, then I could understand why we were told that this is a bright new age with a totally new approach, that this is something dramatic which the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport was prepared to die in the ditch for in the Government negotiations. We know now, however, that the JAAB, which as far as I know has one or maybe two officers servicing it in the Courts Service, is going to be replaced by a small secretariat. The person who now runs the JAAB is being dignified with the title "director" and he or she will be given a small secretariat and that is called a statutory office and then the Minister says that this amounts to the underpinnings of a commission. Now we are beginning to get a vague idea of how fraudulent the facade that is being created by this legislation actually is. It is nothing dramatically different in terms of resources. It is probably just a slightly elaborated version of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.

That said, the Minister has failed signally here to deal with the questions that were put to him at great length last night. We will have to stay here until we get answers. That is the whole point of a Committee Stage. We will not proceed to say yea or nay to this amendment or the section if it is amended until we get straight and upfront answers as to what is meant by all of this.

The Minister said that the provisions of these subsections are similar to section 17 of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority Act 2015. They are not. A couple of paragraphs are similar but what is provided here certainly is not mirrored in that legislation. The contents of subsection (8) are not mirrored in any respect in section 17 of the Act of 2015. The contents of subsection (8) are twofold. We really have to concentrate now on the wording of the subsections. Senator Norris is totally correct in saying that two categories exist under subsection (7), first, the capacity to enter into contracts and arrangements with any person and, second, the capacity, with the consent of the Minister, to appoint consultants or advisers.

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