Judicial appointments
Senator Wilson supported the criticism of the proposed judicial appointments process and argued that the Minister should be called to account.
I wholeheartedly agree with Senators Victor Boyhan and Michael McDowell on the Judiciary and the mechanism by which judges are appointed. For a senior Minister to call into question whether the Chief Justice of the State is capable of chairing such a judicial body is an absolute disgrace and that the Government is allowing that Minister to continue to peddle this suggestion is also a disgrace. The sooner the Minister is brought to book the better. Governments govern. They are not dictated to or should not be dictated to by Independents. Certainly when an important arm of our democracy is questioned, the person questioning it should be put in order quickly. On the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, wanting to come to this House to debate an issue which has nothing to do with him, he is not the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality - Deputy Frances Fitzgerald is. Granted, he is a member of the Government and there is collective responsibility, but I would prefer if he dealt with the portfolio for which he has direct responsibility, a portfolio of which he has made a hames. He is treating ordinary public sector workers with disdain. He can come here to discuss that issue and let us put questions to him on the area for which he has responsibility.