David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister for accepting Senator McDowell's amendment. The Senator more or less anticipated what I was about to say. The Minister seeks to include the objectives that the Judiciary be comprised of equal numbers of men and women and reflect the diversity of the population as a whole. The Bill further states in section 53(5)(f) that members of the Judiciary should be proficient in the Irish language. That completely rules out any suggestion that it is not necessary because if that were the case, it would not be necessary to have those three qualifications in the text either because they are already rehearsed. I thank the Minister for accepting the amendment.