Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 43(1) requires a person wishing to be considered for appointment to a judicial office to make an application to the commission. As the Senator said, section 42(3) states the commission shall issue this invitation when the Minister has made a request. However, taking the two subsections together, the commission is still allowed to decide if it wants to issue an invitation at the start of the year. That would allow a person wishing to be considered for appointment to a judicial office to make an application to the commission. Again, if a vacancy arose in the High Court as a consequence of a promotion from the High Court to the Court of Appeal or even a court beyond that, there is nothing that would preclude the commission from considering an earlier application for the High Court. I was not party to the lengthy debate with the former Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, but the intention is that the commission would be allowed to make an early call earlier in the year whereby people could apply. Names could be taken from the associated list as well.