Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I merely want to state, yet again, that what we are doing here in terms of the practice and procedure in respect of this statement may well vary from time to time, as indeed it might be desirable to do so between the procedures that apply in the form of selection for somebody who does not have a judicial experience and somebody who has.The section refers to "a particular judicial office". It is worded in this way in order to distinguish between the office held by an applicant who is already an officeholder and the new office to which the vacancy applies. In other words, the term "particular judicial office" refers to circumstances where applicants already hold some form of judicial office. I do not see the particular difficulty that Senator McDowell seems to be suggesting and I cannot hold with Senator Craughwell on this matter.