Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was no amendment down to remove the first few lines of this section which is about the eligibility of a District Court judge after two years' service to be "qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court". I am against that proposition for the reasons I have already explained and I am not going to repeat them now. I do not want to delay the House unnecessarily. I am against that provision.

I note Senator Bacik has rightly been persuaded that her amendment would have been unduly restrictive to subsection (6) but in subsection (6) we are dealing with a university to which the Universities Act 1997 applies. Can the Minister tell the House one way or the other whether the technological universities which, as I understand it, are about to come into existence will be covered? Are they universities to which the 1997 Act applies or are they under a separate statute?