Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 8, line 21, after "chairperson" to insert "where the chairperson was a lay person at the time of his or her appointment".

My amendment is somewhat different from that of Senator Norris in that it does not exclude the possibility that the chairperson may be a layperson but instead proposes that the definition of "chairperson" be included in the definition of "lay person" where the chairperson was a layperson at the time of his or her appointment. The purpose is to introduce flexibility and allow for the possibility, for instance, that a person who is appointed to the position of chairperson might thereafter be in the process of studying to be a lawyer or switching from one profession to another. It also covers a situation where a person who is not a judge is thereafter appointed to be a judge. For example, a legal academic who is a member of the commission and is subsequently made a judge should be capable of becoming chairperson of the commission. Subsection (1) sets out that a layperson is a person who does not hold, and has never held, judicial office, is not and never has been the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Chief State Solicitor or a law officer, and is not, and in the relevant period specified by subsection (2) for the purposes of this paragraph, was not, a practising barrister or a practising solicitor.