Seanad debates

Wednesday, 20 February 2019

Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

10:30 am

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House to discuss the Bill. Yesterday, we spoke about the issue of judicial vacancies and recommendations from the commission of persons for appointment. The section states:

(1) Subsection (2) applies where—(a) more than one judicial office in the same court stands vacant, or

(b) the following conditions are satisfied—
(i) the Minister reasonably apprehends that more than one judicial office in the same court will stand vacant, and

(ii) the Commission has received a request of the Minister (which request shall be addressed to the Commission and which, by virtue of this subsection, the Minister has power to make) that the recommendation referred to in subsection (2) be made.
(2) Where this subsection applies, the Commission shall, in accordance with this Act, recommend to the Minister, in respect of the judicial offices concerned, the names of such number of persons as is equal to the relevant number ranked in the order of the Commission’s preference (and that expression of preference shall not make any distinction between the several vacancies concerned).

(3) In subsection (2) "relevant number" means the number obtained by multiplying by 2 the number of vacancies (or apprehended vacancies), and adding one to the product.

As we heard yesterday, section 41(3) would mean there would be five names for two vacancies and seven names for three vacancies. The amendment Senators McDowell and Boyhan and I have proposed seeks to ring-fence the offices of the Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal, President of the High Court, President of the Circuit Court and President of the District Court. I may be mistaken but yesterday I got the impression from the Minister that he would be somewhat favourably disposed to making this amendment.

Prior to debating the amendment, we had just finished a debate on the trickle-down effect in which we had been trying to outline the problem of trickle down. In the case of this amendment, we did not want to mix up different expertise or requirements. The appointment of the Chief Justice may require a set of skills that may not necessarily be commensurate with the appointment of an ordinary member of the Supreme Court. From this point of view, we seek to ensure that these appointments are made discretely one by one and that, regardless of other vacancies, if a vacancy arose in the role of Chief Justice, it would be filled in its own right. It makes perfect sense when we look at the structure of the courts that we would ensure we did not seek to fill from the same pool the commission had interviewed the role of an ordinary member of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice. From this point of view, we hope the Minister will accept the amendment and what we are trying to do.

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