Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think it is diversity among the citizenry. There is to be a preliminary stage and there would have to be such a stage where people go through the applications to see whether applicants are starters or non-starters. I do not see why staff in the commission cannot do that. I do not see why one would want to bring in temporary staff or a company on contract or appoint an accountancy or HR firm to go through all the forms to carry out fairly basic searches as to whether applicants are eligible to be appointed. Why should this preliminary stage vetting process not be done by somebody under the direct control of the commission as a civil servant? What is wrong with this being done by a civil servant? I believe there is a good reason it should be done by a civil servant and there is every good reason a limited liability company, large partnership or large recruiting agency should not be contracted to do that kind of work.

That is the first stage in the process. In respect of the second stage, it is very important to differentiate paragraph (a) from paragraph (b) because they are clearly different things and in any legal interpretation of this section, they will be interpreted as distinct functions. Paragraph (b) allows such a contractual person, appointed consultant or appointed adviser to provide an evaluation or an assessment of an applicant's suitability for appointment that would assist the commission in making any decision in the course of carrying out those procedures. Those are the selection procedures referred to in the previous paragraph (a). Let us be very clear about what we are authorising by this wording.It is the appointment of a limited liability company, law firm, accountancy firm such as KPMG or recruitment agency, acting as a consultant to the commission, to provide an evaluation or an assessment of an applicant's suitability for appointment that would assist the commission in making any decision in the course of carrying out its selection procedure. That the commission should be able to delegate the function to a third party, be it a body corporate or an appointed consultant or adviser, the process of carrying out an evaluation or assessment of the applicant's suitability for appointment as a judge is unparalleled in other legislative procedures I have seen. It has not been heralded by anything that has happened to date, has not been spoken about publicly to date and has not been defended here in principle by the Minister because leaping on the lifeline I threw him, he immediately said that perhaps with the flood of District Court judge appointments, it would be worthwhile narrowing them down because they will not come every time. In case any Members of this House are under any illusion, this wording came in the original form of the Bill, as initiated by the Minister. This is not something that was put together in the heat of the furnace of the Dáil committee. This is genuine Department of Justice and Equality initiative and Office of the Parliamentary Counsel material that proposes to delegate the function of providing evaluations or assessments of applicants' suitability that would assist the commission in making any decision in the carrying out of the selection.