Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Death Star and all of Darth Vader's plans can be overridden by pressing a general override button. Amendment No. 24 is the general override button, the general saver that undermines and drives a coach and four through all of the principles we spent 99 hours debating on Committee Stage according to Government officials. After all of the time wasting, we have an amendment that, presumably, horrifies the Minister, Deputy Ross, because it undermines the entire elaborate dog's dinner of a structure which sets up this cumbersome and unwieldy process for judicial appointment.

The amendment is very badly drafted. Its language is jarring. I compared the phrase, "the Government may give to the President" with the language used elsewhere in the Bill, such as in section 51(1) which states, "the Government decides to advise the President", section 51(2) which states, "Where the Government has decided" and section 55 which refers to the submission of statements, "to the Commission for its approval". The drafting of the amendment is significantly flawed. I presume the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, will remedy it in the Dáil. The Bill that came to the Seanad from the Dáil was flawed and internally contradictory and the Bill that will go from us to the Dáil on foot of the guillotine that will fall in 15 minutes is grammatically and constitutionally flawed in spite of the general embarrassment or general saver which the Minister is seeking to introduce.