James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We believe this legislation is constitutional; otherwise we would not have tabled it. I will not repeat the speaking points about why we are gathering this additional information.

Regarding eligibility, all Supreme Court justices will be eligible to apply for that vacancy. The independent commission is simply making recommendations and it will not go as far as to say anybody is unsuitable to be Chief Justice. It will simply look at those applicants and decide which of them it believes are best to be recommended to the Government to choose from.