Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, I will not use the word "blackmailing". His coercion of the Government to force the Minister to come in here for a year and a half to defend the indefensible is now exposed for what it is. This is a monumental U-turn. This is an acknowledgement of futility and redundancy. It means that any future Government can appoint whom it wishes without any regard to the judicial appointments commission if it so chooses. It also, in conjunction with section 51, makes it very clear that the Government is given express licence to just inform the commission that it is making appointments within the superior courts and does not require its assistance at all.For what have we been spending our time here? I telescoped the discussion on earlier amendments in order to have time to contribute on this amendment. We now realise the futility, redundancy and political fraudulence of what the Minister, Deputy Ross, told the people he was going to do-----