Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am inclined to be sympathetic to the Minister's view that we should deal with this amendment in section 49.What is throwing me off is that it will not be possible, and as was said our amendment goes further than section 49, on Report Stage to bring in the level of certainty we are looking for in this amendment. I am a bit conflicted in not pursuing it, given the way the debate has gone in this House. If I call a vote, the chances are that I will lose it. We are talking about people's reputations, and we have all seen how this country works. Indeed, in the Minister's Government we have seen fine people hounded out of office by a media frenzy, either cooked up within this Oireachtas or fed to the media. I had to apologise to the Minister's predecessor for getting caught up in that because I think a decent woman was run out of office. I can just imagine the furore within the shark-infested waters in and around this House and the demand to know who applied and how they fared. We love to take people's reputations down in this country. It is a feature of our society that we like to take people down. With this Bill we are expecting people to apply for judicial appointments in the future. If we get one bad outcome, it is going to destroy the entire process of people applying for judicial posts.

Will the Minister give me some sort of guarantees, and I know we are not at section 49, as to where we will be before I consider whether I will divide the House on this? I am very mindful that the Minister has been more than facilitating in any area that I have debated with him until now and I am mindful not to frustrate him any further but I would like to have some sort of guarantees.