Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is all a judge has to do. Under what is being put in place, as the Minister told us on the last occasion - I will not go back over the terms in which he told us - that will not be permitted in the future. The only way in which a person who has served for ten or 15 years in the High Court will be able to signal to the Government his or her willingness to serve as a member of the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court is by entering into a competitive process with the Judicial Appointments Commission, whereby applications will be submited, applicants will be interviewed and their names may or not be included in a secret list that will go to the Government. They may or may not be told - we have never had a clear explanation - that they were or were not shortlisted.That is what is going on here.

The Minister may make light of the phrase "embarrassing" but if a person has been functioning as a High Court judge for ten or 15 years and all he or she wants to do is signal availability - and the person is a humble High Court judge who fully appreciates they may have better judges than him or her, and that is their business, but only wants to inform them that he or she is available - I see nothing wrong in that procedure. If one wants, in these circumstances-----