Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The critiques that have been made during the course of this debate in respect of the wording of section 46 illustrate a point I made earlier in the debate about the unwieldy nature of the processes and procedures provided for under what should be a reforming Bill. Given the Bill purports to reform and streamline processes for judicial appointment, it is unfortunate that instead of providing for an easily understandable, coherent and logical scheme, what we are seeing instead is a somewhat cumbersome procedure that lacks the sort of clarity and transparency that could have been provided for.

Our amendment No. 92 about ranking, on which we just called a vote, should have been a crucial part of the reform of the process and it is unfortunate it was not. The issues around the language in section 46, which this and other amendments have sought to address, again highlight this difficulty with the processes in the legislation.