Judicial Appointments Process: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2020-11-26
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Peadar Tóibín (AON), Meath West

The Minister's response contradicts the behaviour of the Chief Justice and other Supreme Court judges previously who have gone to the Government demanding that it fill positions within the Judiciary. It is not feasible for the Minister to say that she was not asked to fill a role. The Minister is driving the Department. It is the Minister's decision and responsibly to fill that role and nobody else's. He or she, therefore, needs to have a criterion to leave a gaping vacancy within that. The only criterion for that vacancy currently is that there is a rotating Taoiseach and, therefore, a rotating nomination for that.
Most of the Minister's focus has been on the particular list from the JAAB and there has been very little focus on the other two list - the expressions of interest lists and the lists of available judges. Is it not a two-tier process? If the JAAB is the primary focus of the selection of a judge, do the other judges not have a real grievance that their expressions of interest of their ability to do the job have been ignored by the Minister?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-11-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-11-26