Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the last occasion before the Christmas break, we were discussing a proposal on my part and on the part of Senators Boyhan, Craughwell and Norris for the amendment of section 39 by the addition of three additional subsections, one of which was to provide that nothing in the Act should require any member of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal or the High Court to apply to the commission for consideration for appointment for any other judicial office in respect of those courts, including the offices of Chief Justice of Ireland, President of the High Court or President of the Court of Appeal. Subsection (6) of our proposed amendment was to provide that a member of those courts would still be able to notify the secretary to the Government in writing of his or her willingness and availability to be appointed to any vacancy for any such judicial office mentioned in the first subsection and to provide that where a judicial office mentioned in subsection (5) stands vacant that in the ordinary course the commission should seek applications from persons who are otherwise eligible for appointment to such office, such as practising barristers, solicitors or members of the District Court or Circuit Court, as the case might be.

I want to point out to the Minister something which I was taken aback by. Over the Christmas break there was some coverage of this legislation and its passage through this House. The coverage was generated by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross. On 2 January he said that it was is totally unacceptable to see inordinate delays because of vested interests and he said it is a terrible waste of parliamentary time. I would not expect him to say any different. In an interesting Irish Examinerarticle he went on to say: "The Irish Times has been constantly critical of him for some time ... the opposition there which is relentless is all down to their opposition of the Judicial Appointments Bill." He was effectively saying that the poor press he was getting generally in the Irish Timeslargely stemmed from its concern about this legislation, which is a bit over the top because his other activities merit close scrutiny and sometimes condemnation, with or without this Bill. He said: "The bill has passed the Dáil but is being filibustered in the Seanad and being cheered on by the Irish Times which is a fairly irresponsible attitude for the newspaper, but that is up to them." On 31 December he said:

The filibuster by legal insiders in the Seanad has come up with an ingenious new delaying ruse. They will appeal to the judiciary itself to make independent judgments on the very system of political appointment that landed them in their current positions. Wow.

I will stop there and I presume that was a reference to a suggestion on my part that the constitutional issues in this Bill would be well teased out by an Article 26 reference, which is within the power of the President.