Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I broadly agree with the statement Senator McDowell has made. It is tremendously important to remember that there is a basis on which there should be a political involvement, a democratic involvement, if you will, in the appointment of judges.They are a branch of the Government in the Judiciary, as a whole, and it is appropriate that the people have some say through the Government. That is the way it has worked and that is the way it should continue to work, which is why the Government still makes those appointments even under this legislation.

I wish to raise a point that is important to remember. Once appointed, judges have no colour and no politics. That has been the overwhelming experience of the Judiciary in this country for generations and continues to be the case. There is a broad misconception that somehow, because a judge may have been politically active in the past, and many of them have been, that that politics continues into their judicial life. In my experience, it does not. They put that behind, separate themselves from it and it does not affect their decision-making on the bench. That can be seen in countless examples of where judges who might be of one party have made decisions against that party when it was in government, for example. The former political life of a person does not intersect with his or her judicial life, once appointed, in my experience. It is very important to state that because to have it any other way would be to absolutely denigrate the good work that is done by the Judiciary. As I have said in this Chamber on many occasions, we are lucky enough to have a Judiciary that is on the whole excellent. That comes from the fact that those people divorce themselves from any political opinions they might have held before being appointed to judicial office and they take very seriously the independence that they need to exercise as a judge.