Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the other hand I do not read much of what is attributed to the Minister's colleague, but this jumped off the page at me, and I thought the Minister should be aware of it. Now he is aware of it. He also told the Sunday Independentthat The Irish Times had been "ranting and raving in a kind of almost fervent zealotry" about his proposals. He said, "They're very keen to stop it and they expressed that editorial opinion in the last year and that's their point of view, I don't think it's the case with rest of the media".

Let us be very clear on the question of whether this relates to promotional appointments, which is what we are dealing with. As I understand it this Cabinet has made judicial appointments to which this legislation would apply on 36 occasions. That was under the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board system. Some 36 appointments have been made to every court in the land-----