Seanad debates

Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

2:30 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator McDowell can think what he likes. I think there is a long list. Like Humpty Dumpty, what I think goes. Words mean what I mean them to mean, no more and no less. The Government could indicate it is not satisfied with the three names provided and ask the commission to produce another three and so on until the end of the list has been reached. There is nothing to prevent a speeding up this process, instead of having a slow motion revelation of the long list. I remind the House that Senator McDowell has also used the phrase "long list". It may be possible that the Senator was saying that there is no such thing as a long list, but I do remember his lips forming the words "long list".

There is another absurdity in that an unelected officer of State, namely, the Attorney General, has greater power than the Government. Surely, that is unconstitutional. I would have thought the Government should be the supreme authority in law-making and appointment-making in this country. Nobody else has that power. The Government is supposed to be the supreme authority, yet an unelected official of the State has greater knowledge and greater power than the Government. Surely, that is an anomaly that ought to be examined.

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