David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will. It has been 43 days since the Minister agreed that it was entirely reasonable that the disposition of the Government to amendments be known at the earliest opportunity, yet we still have not seen what the amendments to section 44 will be. Therefore, amendment No. 92b was meant to address the current section 44. As the Minister is aware, section 44 in its current form would involve 16 members of the commission appointing the Chief Justice, the President of the Court of Appeal, the President of the High Court and ordinary members of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. The process of appointment by this Government of all of the aforementioned positions in the past two years or so has included the president of an appellate court, the Attorney General and the chair of the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC. This process was used to appoint the current Chief Justice, new ordinary members of the Supreme Court, and the President and new ordinary members of the Court of Appeal.

For most litigants, the Court of Appeal will be their last opportunity to have their cases heard, with only cases of exceptional public importance going to the Supreme Court. The High Court, Circuit Court and District Court are bound by the decisions of their superior courts. This includes the Court of Appeal with respect to the Supreme Court. Decisions made by the latter two courts are of fundamental importance to the rule of law and their officeholders bear significant responsibility for how the law is applied and interpreted.

The Government in its wisdom deemed as a bare minimum that it was appropriate for the Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal and President of the High Court, all of whom are members of the Council of State, to be appointed by a separate senior judicial appointments committee. This proposal was voted out of the Bill in the Dáil. The Government proposes that the Chief Justice, Attorney General and chair of the committee will recommend appointments to these offices rather than the 16-member judicial commission, which is how the process will operate if the section is enacted in the Dáil version. If the Government accepts the principle that the appointment process for the Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal and President of the High Court requires a more finessed consideration than the 16-member commission process, wherein all of these officeholders are either members or ex officiomembers of the Supreme Court, it is difficult to see why it would object to ordinary members of these courts also forming part of the separate senior judicial appointments committee process. As matters stand, we do not know what the Government's position is regarding section 44, which bears directly on the operation of section 46.