Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I had hardly started speaking before we had to adjourn yesterday. This amendment, which is in the name of Senator Norris, seeks to limit the amount of expenditure on the new quango that this Bill is seeking to create. The Judicial Appointments Advisory Board costs virtually nothing to operate. The Minister has estimated that the proposed judicial appointments commission will cost approximately €500,000 a year to operate. That might sound like petty cash to some people, but it will come to €5 million over ten years. Senators can multiply as much as they like into the future. We can be reasonably sure that the amount it will cost to run the commission will increase with the rate of inflation. The real question that Senator Norris and I want to underline relates to what will happen if this quango is actually created. I emphasise that we are totally opposed to it. When the Government falls in the near future, its successor will be confronted with the question of whether it would be a good idea to make a commencement order for this Act, to leave it on the shelf or - even better - to repeal it. The extra costs involved in an entirely redundant, useless and counterproductive body corporate being established should be appreciated. The waste of taxpayers' money involved should be noted. I am speaking for myself, and presumably somewhat for Senator Norris, when I say that the sum of money mentioned in this amendment represents a plea for economy. If this amendment is rejected by the Minister because he considers that his estimate of €500,000 is preferable as the likely cost of this quango, so be it, except to say that it is a gross waste of taxpayers' money.