Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Why were we kept here for so long in making these points and challenging the very foundations of this legislation? The answer is that one man's vanity had to be appeased. He is the man who said he would end cronyism in the appointment of judges. The Minister must now accept, with the two provisions that I have drawn attention to, that the Bill does not have the effect that the Minister, Deputy Ross, has claimed for it of ending political input or decisions by the Government to appoint who it wishes to judicial office. That is what we have achieved after a year and a half or however long it has been in this House. It is a climbdown and a surrender. The Minister said that he does not engage in left turns. He has engaged in a massive U-turn to try to save this Bill from a charge of unconstitutionality. He is running up the white flag and saying that we are wasting €500,000 on this commission and establishing a quango, and that we will have an immensely complicated process for appointing judges. I remind him that one of the consequences of this is that if there is a vacancy in the Supreme Court and somebody goes to it from the Court of Appeal, and then somebody goes to the Court of Appeal from the High Court, the process could take at least six to nine months if done in accordance with this legislation instead of being done in an afternoon, which the Minister and his Government have done very successfully heretofore. I ask the Minister to take a bow. After all of this nonsense of establishing a quango to satisfy the Minister, Deputy Ross, we are back at square one and any Government can appoint any eligible lawyer to judicial office, which is what this section means.