Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Through the Chair, I want to say that there was never a situation in which any Government to which I was Attorney General or of which I was a member as Minister or Tánaiste could not ask the Attorney General what the Judiciary made of a given candidate, what he or she thought of that candidate, or who else showed an interest in the job. Such a situation still does not pertain and will not until this Bill in its present miserable form is passed. These provisions are now being introduced for the very first time by this Government. It is all one-way traffic. One can say that there is a slight fig leaf in this Bill where it is said that nothing interferes with the right of the Government to make its own recommendation in any event, but the entire Bill does precisely that. It keeps the Government in ignorance of the true facts and makes it a criminal offence to tell the Government about those facts. I despair sometimes, but there we are.