asked the Minister for Justice whether he will take steps to establish a suitable body on the lines of the Local Appointments Commission or the Civil Service Commission to recommend persons to fill judicial and other legal appointments.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Judicial and Legal Appointments.
The answer is no.
Is the Minister aware that there is considerable public disquiet at the manner in which these appointments are made and at the fact that the spoils system operates among political Parties in this regard? Does the Minister not consider that it is about time that serious consideration was given to changing this system?
The Deputy expressed no concern while he was a member of the Party.
I am talking about all Parties.
I am not aware of any disquiet existing in the public mind in connection with this matter. The law clearly imposes upon the Government the responsibility for making the appointment. That was a deliberate act on the part of this House at one time. My own personal view is, apart from the law, that a Government is quite competent to make such an appointment and that a Government is quite entitled to set up whatever machinery it may require to advise it as to the qualifications, and even without such machinery a Government has at hand men who are qualified to advise a Government as to the comparative qualifications of those who apply for appointments of this nature.
I am not questioning the law. I am asking the Minister would he change the law because I think it is unsatisfactory in its present working no matter what Party is in office. With very few exceptions——
The Deputy is not asking a question; he is making a statement.
It is time a change was made in the way I have suggested. Is it not also true that they can make medical appointments and they must be equally wrong in that? Would the Minister not agree that the Local Appointments Commission or the Civil Service Commission——
I cannot allow the Deputy to continue in this manner. He is not asking a question.
Would the Minister not agree that in relation to other professional appointments, the Local Appointments Commission and the Civil Service Commission have established a very good record?
The Minister has already stated that he would not at all agree with the suggestion made by the Deputy. The Minister for Justice shares the view which I hold also that, the law having provided that the Government should make this appointment, we feel as a Government quite competent to make an appointment of this nature, as competently as any Local Appointments Commission or Civil Service Commission.
Political jobbery on both sides.
The Deputy's own hands are not clean.