Judicial appointments and GRECO
Senators Humphreys, Craughwell and others backed the amendment to delay the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill until the GRECO report is available, accusing the Government of legislating in the dark. They argued the report was being withheld and should be published before any vote.
I second Senator Ivana Bacik's amendment to the Order of Business. We mentioned the word "GRECO" and that goes over the public's heads. What is GRECO? I think it is worthwhile to state that GRECO is the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption. We know that everybody in this House today knows that GRECO has issued a yellow card to Ireland. The State is not formally replying to it because it does not want it published. I can honestly say that the majority of this House at this stage has seen some sign or some part of that report. I appeal to my colleagues in the Fine Gael Party, with whom I sat in government and we said that we would not let that happen again. Our courts are the foundation of democracy. We said that future decisions will be facts based. What are we pushing through the House today? A vanity of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross. There is no common sense and no proper procedures. We received the amendments late. It is not good enough to keep the Minister, Deputy Ross, on. He is not coming in to defend his Bill because the Minister for Justice and Equality does not believe in it, yet it will be rammed through the Seanad in the next couple of days. Then we will get the yellow card from Europe to say that we had proceeded incorrectly. There are flaws in the Bill.
I am not saying the whole Bill is wrong. There are some good elements but what will be rammed through the Seanad in the next couple of days is wrong. It is undemocratic. It is being done to keep one Minister on board. The Government is undermining democracy, making deals with the devil. Be very careful.
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I have just come in from another gorgeous day outside. We have seen beautiful sunshine and blue skies for some time now. People have been loving and hating it for a variety of reasons. The real issue that brings the good weather to my attention is anti-social behaviour.
I hosted a town hall meeting in Carlow last week and anti-social behaviour encouraged by the good weather was raised by a number of those present. We have beautiful villages and towns around Ireland, some near beaches and others near rivers and streams. Everyone is entitled to go down to these public amenities and enjoy them. However, this week it has been brought to my attention that people were drinking and littering the vicinity with empty cans, household rubbish and leftover food. It is a minority of people, it is unfair to others who are using the amenities.
While we have by-laws in each county governing this type of activity and there is anti-social behaviour legislation, the public does not feel empowered and often they do not know if what they are witnessing is illegal activity or not. It is quite simply unfair that we do not give the power of knowledge to our citizens and tell them exactly how to deal with this behaviour. They need information on who they should call. We all know that if one has an emergency, one rings 999, but when one comes across this type of behaviour who does one contact? We need greater public awareness about citizens' rights in these situations. We could do with a debate about our laws and how we can enforce them and make the public aware of them. Only this week, we have heard of a hosepipe ban and people were told they could be fined if they use a hosepipe to water the garden. The question must be asked about who will enforce it, who will fine them and sort this out. We have no enforcement of the law. Who will enforce these provisions? We need to bring the Minister to the Chamber to discuss the by-law and see what we can do to help people become more aware of the by-laws.
I am calling for a debate on this issue.
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I speak in support of Senators Bacik, Humphreys, Boyhan and McDowell. We are discussing a Bill coming before this House that is supposed to lead to the open and transparent appointment of judges, yet there is a report that is closed and is not available to any of us before we debate this Bill. I understand the report is critical of the Bill. It strikes me as rather strange that Senators would be asked to buy a pig in a poke. This is one of those rare occasions when the Members of this House get to show their teeth and show they have backbone and they are not afraid to suspend. We are only asking for a suspension for 24 hours so the Government has an opportunity to bring forward the Bill.
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Does Senator Bacik want to brief Senator Craughwell?
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One can only amend the Order of Business today. One has 24 hours to bring forward this GRECO report. Let us all sit down and have a read of the report and see why it is so God damning of the Bill that the Government is trying to ram through this House against the wishes not just of the Members of the House but so many people in the public domain who have been saying that this Bill is a dog's dinner not a plate of oysters.
Let us take our time-----
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Has anyone heard of the likes of today?
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-----and let us read this report. The Government is sitting on the report and will not release it because it knows that if it did nobody could support the Bill. The Leader knows that. He should release the report and prove me wrong.