I draw the attention of the House to an editorial published in last Saturday's edition of The Irish Times. It is extremely damning. It is a long time since I have read such a negative editorial and it bears directly on the business of this House. The headline for the article could be "Scrap the Judicial Appointments Bill". The first line reads, "It is still not too late for the Government to scrap the ill-advised Judicial Appointments Bill being foisted on the country at the whim of Minister for Transport Shane Ross." In one sentence there are four crucial negatives: "not too late"; "ill-advised"; "foisted"; and "whim". The only thing I have against the editorial is that it continued, "The Bill is bogged down in the Seanad because of a rearguard action led by former attorney general Michael McDowell." What about his second in command? Here I am.

That is scandalous.

In the article reference was made to Minister Ross's complaints.

The Senator can make his points to the Minister when he is in this Chamber later.

I will, indeed.

Yes.

The article mentioned that the Minister, Deputy Ross, talked about people, "who will stop at nothing to frustrate democratic decisions.” However, the editorial pointed out that all of us with our various techniques of holding the Bill up to scrutiny are merely exercising our democratic rights, "to use all available parliamentary means to scrutinise a deeply flawed piece of legislation." The term "deeply flawed" is another negative.

The editorial noted that Fine Gael Senators and Deputies have objections to the Bill but are afraid to do anything because of the agreement they have to bring Deputy Ross into government, the latter stating the legislation is supposed to get rid of cronyism. As pointed out in the editorial, the legislation will do nothing of the kind whatsoever. This is in the editorial, which is an independent voice. It continued, "It will simply mean that the recommendations for appointment to the judiciary will be made by a body which does not have the necessary expertise or experience to make informed recommendations." That is pretty damning stuff. The author of the editorial admits that there is a case for reviewing the judicial appointments process but points out, "this Bill was drafted on the basis of no serious research, analysis or international comparisons", and that the Government has failed to prove any deficiency or that any rotten judges were appointed.

The editorial continued, "It is about time that the Fine Gael majority in the Cabinet", put their foot down and instructed, "Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to go back to the drawing board" with this Bill whether or not it entails the resignation of Deputy Ross. We could all live with that one.