Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was just trying to work out how bad this particular lacuna in the Bill is going to turn out to be and what inefficiencies will be created by it. If for whatever reason - illness or whatever else - the position of Chief Justice were to fall vacant tomorrow, supposing it did, regarding the procedure going to be put in place to fill that position, and as I understand it at the moment, every person who wanted to be considered for appointment to the position of Chief Justice would apply to the Judicial Appointments Commission, following an advertisement put in the newspapers for that purpose. As the Bill presently stands a commission-based approach to that would operate. The applicants would set out at length their qualifications for the job. They would, as the Bill currently stands, be interviewed, presumably, because the lay members of the commission would not know one of them from another. A procedure would be engaged in whereby the commission would then come to a conclusion as to its recommendation for appointment to the position of Chief Justice and the matter-----