Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the back of all of this, as we come to it at some stage over the next few months, the definition of a lay person is relevant in the sense that such a person could be appointed as a suitable person by the Public Appointments Service process and be agreed to by the two Houses of the Oireachtas. This filtration in paragraph (d) is remarkable, given that the only way lay persons, other than ex officiopeople and practitioners, are going to find their way onto the judicial appointments commission is through a very complex process whereby they have to apply to be appointed. The Public Appointments Service has to vet them, recommend them and short-list them. That recommendation has to come before the Houses of the Oireachtas to be approved. It is not as if some wholly unworthy person or a person with a terrible original sin of knowing anything about the law is going to sneak in by some ministerial-----