Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We welcome this Bill, but first I raise some of the amendments we would like to table. We are a little concerned about judicial independence. We will seek to incorporate judicial independence, appointments by the Minister, and the Dublin declaration on standards and recruitment for the appointment of members of the Judiciary into the Bill on Committee Stage.

The second issue I will flag is the appointment of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission as a nominating body. The initial draft of the Bill guaranteed that human rights and equality expertise would be included. That seems to have been scrapped in this version of the Bill. We will table an amendment, as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission recommends, to ensure expertise is possessed by laypersons who can be appointed to the commission. Without this guarantee, the Bill allows any layperson who is a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission to be appointed regardless of knowledge and expertise. We seek to amend that to ensure there is specific human rights knowledge and expertise among the laypeople who are appointed. It is in the best interests of the judicial appointments commission to maintain this commitment to human rights and equality throughout its selection procedures. This requirement is an addition to the Bill. The amendment maintains the rest of the original text. I will leave it at that, having flagged those amendments we will table on Committee Stage.