Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have been emphasising that from the very beginning. I am the person who supports the present system, which is working and which the Government is operating perfectly well. The Minister is the person who is trying to politicise the appointment of judges by handing the entire function over to a group of lay people. That is what is happening here. We should remember that it was the Minister, Deputy Ross, who as a Deputy proposed that every appointment should be scrutinised by a Dáil committee and subject to its approval, and that a majority of the committee should be Opposition Members. He wanted to politicise the appointment of the Judiciary in that way and to amend the Constitution to do it, so the Minister should not give me a lecture about this. I stand over every appointment I made.