Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Sorry. The Minister has not done it, his colleagues in Government have not done it and we are, therefore, in a position of what is now the norm, we are now being told by the Minister here in the House, is an improbable cascade scenario, what is going on at the moment is likely to change and likely to become improbable in the future, and I am exaggerating when I say that these jobs are filled from among serving judges. It is simply not correct to say that, it is simply misleading the Minister himself and it is not assisting this debate to try to slap down the perfectly reasonable argument based on experience, not least recent experience by the Minister's own Government in filling positions in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, to argue that they will be appointments from among the Judiciary, which will carry with them consequential vacancies. That is what is happening now. I have no problem with it happening now but I have a serious problem with the Minister saying that it is somehow exaggerating the situation------