Seanad debates

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

2:30 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I think I heard Senator McDowell say that the Equality Act will not apply to this legislation. I note the Senator is nodding. How can that be? Perhaps the Minister will indicate if there is a section in this Bill which excludes it from the operation of the Equality Act because I would think that quite extraordinary. Maybe, it does. I must have overlooked it. Perhaps there is such a provision in the Bill. If the Equality Act did apply we would certainly be in serious danger of judges taking cases for compensation. They are pretty thirsty for their old lucre, those self same judges. I previously said in regard to a proposal to grant off-licence status to supermarkets, shops and so on, which was subsequently done despite the protests of the local community, the Garda and the councils, that I did not know who these judges were, that they must be lunatics and that they certainly did not live in my area. A judge, apparently, took an action for libel against RTÉ, which I did not know at the time. There was only one judge handling licences at that time. I would have defended it and I would have won but I suppose RTÉ found it difficult to find a barrister to go against a judge in court. That would have been a very human situation. I warned them anyway, because I said it twice. I said it once on radio and once on television and of course the bloody old judge took a second case, which was most extraordinary and wrong.

With regard to Judge Rory O'Hanlon, I am afraid I got his name wrong in the first instance because I called him Judge Redmond O'Hanlon, which is an O'Hanlon family name and so it was a natural mistake. Senator McDowell is right that the correct name is Judge Rory O'Hanlon. I did not know that he had a Damascene conversion to fundamental Catholic beliefs and so on. That is one case. It does not mean that there are not other people who come with these beliefs and they could be ferreted out.

Senator McDowell did not really address fundamentally the question that I raised about the fact that the Government still had the power to make the decision about the appointment of judges. The commission establishes the facts. Senator McDowell's point that there could be 12 applicants for a job, which the commission would then whittle down to three, lends substance to his argument but I would still maintain that the Government retains the absolute right to make the appointment.

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