On the issue of support for victims of crime and their families, a man whose son had been murdered in Spain in a case of mistaken identity came to my office recently. He was in great shock. He had had no interaction with the Irish authorities on any investigation into his son’s murder. He did not know where to turn. Will the Leader ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if her Department plans to do anything to set up a proper office to liaise with victims of crime and their families? Many charitable organisations have stepped into this breach to support victims of crime and their families.

In view of the upcoming and unprecedented work stoppages by An Garda Síochána in November, I have massive sympathy for gardaí because they are on the front line. Their job is very difficult. Every day they run the risk that they will not go home. The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality needs to engage more with the Garda Representative Association to try to avoid this desperate measure which will have a serious effect on the country.

Will the Leader ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to explain the appointment or non-appointment of new judges? When Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil made the confidence and supply agreement which was published, it was provided that all agreements with Independent Deputies and other political parties would be published in full. We have read in the newspapers in the past couple of days, however, that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, believes he has an agreement with the Government that no new judges will be appointed until a Bill which has not yet even received pre-legislative scrutiny and the terms of which will be highly controversial, if published in the form adumbrated, and raise serious constitutional issues is passed. That Bill must be passed before further judges can be appointed by reason of an agreement which one Minister seems to have extorted from the rest of the Cabinet. That is constitutionally wrong. The Constitution provides that it is the Executive’s function to advise the President to appoint judges. This is not an academic issue. It is an issue of significant importance because a few days ago the President of the High Court suspended reforms he had brought forward for want of judicial resources to implement them. This means that the ordinary business of the courts is being affected by this blackmail deal that seems to have been made privately with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to the effect that no new judges can be appointed until the Houses of the Oireachtas consider a new Bill.

It ignores completely the fact that this is a minority Government which does not have the capacity to push through its Bill. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has his own proposals on the matter in the form of a Bill which he has published. It is profoundly wrong that one member of Government should hijack the appointment of judges in this way.

Hear, hear.

I want the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to explain to us how it is that serious damage has been done to the constitutional process by reason of an agreement which is unpublished and secret and which should not be in place, given the deal on confidence and supply that was entered into between the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party. There should not be a secret deal. It should be published. As legislators, we are entitled to know if it is the case that judges may not be appointed at the whim of one Minister in government. On that basis, I am asking that the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality come to the House as a matter of urgency to explain what deal there is and who entered into it-----

Today.

-----and to indicate clearly that the Constitution overrides deals of this kind and that the Government retains its right to appoint judges and will appoint judges when it is necessary to do so.