Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do.

I find it staggering that Senators are in such a lather over this issue. I am merely putting non-laypersons in this jurisdiction on the same footing as non-laypersons from outside the jurisdiction. It is perfectly normal. I do not see any circumstances in which we should be constrained from appointing a person who practised here as a barrister and who was for a period a layperson, bearing in mind the possibility of appointing a similar person from, say, any other part of the United Kingdom. I do not believe a constraint would be fair. I find it staggering to listen to Senators work themselves up into a frenzy over an issue that is merely a matter of form in the context of treating people outside the jurisdiction in the same manner and by the same means as people from within the jurisdiction. It entails no more and no less. There is no conspiracy, no secret and no cover-up.