David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Going back to the question of independence, in section 51(b), the Minister already directs that we should take into account skills, competences, personal attributes and characteristics. God alone knows what personal attributes are. Must someone have a beard or red hair? Is it a case about when one made one’s first holy communion? It is completely all over the place.

The Minister could argue that when he introduced the questions of skills and competencies, it could be translated to include experience in an area. I cannot for the life of me see why there should not be an advertisement which refers to the particular area of law. Senator McDowell referred to the question of intellectual property, copyright and so forth. This is an immensely complex area. I have been dealing with it in other legislation. We have had meetings with civil servants in the Department. The intricacies are beyond anything most of us imagined. It is a technical area and it would be quite wrong to put somebody in that position who does not have expertise in this area. I do not see any reason we should not refer to it in an advertisement. Otherwise, one would be getting all kinds of people with different experiences. It would be absurd to appoint some of them.