Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will very briefly respond to the comments made by Senators McDowell and Daly. In response to Senator McDowell, with respect it would be relatively easy for the Bar Council, the Law Society and indeed the other bodies included in amendment No. 14, including the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and so on, to nominate both a man and a woman for appointment. I do not see any difficulty with that. As Senator Daly said, we have seen the success of gender quota legislation in the political sphere. There really is no difficulty in this.

Our amendment No. 14 clearly sets out that the Government would appoint members of the commission with regard to the objective that no fewer than five members would be women and no fewer than five would be men. The Government would have the choice of a nominee of each gender put forward by the different bodies, including the Law Society and the Bar Council. As I have said there is a coherence to that proposal in amendment No. 14 which we do not believe is reflected in the Government's scheme in sections 10 and 13 and the other sections.

The final point to make is that there is also somewhat of a concern about the way in which section 13 is drafted, to which Senator McDowell referred, in that it requires the chairperson of the general council of the Bar of Ireland to nominate a barrister as a member of the commission and the president of the Law Society of Ireland to nominate a solicitor. Our formula in amendment No. 14, which again is an alternative, is better in that we suggest that the members be nominated by the council of the Bar and by the Law Society, rather than by the individual president or chairperson. That is a better and more democratic means of nomination.