Flanagan calls for ‘respectful’ debate on judicial appointments bill

The Government has been caught in an escalating row with the judiciary over the bill, which provides for the creation of a new Judicial Appointments Commission with a lay majority and chair.

Speaking to TDs, Mr Flanagan (pictured) sought to reassure judges that he had “taken account of a great deal of what the Judiciary has had to say, including on merit, canvassing, the selection of lay candidates, the provisions relating to academics and other matters”.

He said: “While there are deficiencies in some aspects of the current system, it could not be said to have affected the quality, integrity or diligence of the Judiciary, which has contributed greatly to the success of our modern democracy or, most of all, its true independence.

“Ireland regularly features very highly on international measures of judicial independence. Judges themselves, through their professionalism and service, have ensured that our Judiciary is held in very high esteem.

“I want the debate in these Houses over the next few weeks to be appropriately respectful to the judicial branch of Government.”

He added: “I am sure that, in the new arrangements, the participating judges, those with non-judicial legal experience and those with other areas of expertise and experience will work very closely and respectfully together, under the guidance of the chair, to reassure the people of Ireland that the best possible people are being selected for the bench.”

The Government is seeking to pass the bill through the Oireachtas by the summer recess, though Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has told Cabinet that it would not guillotine the debate, The Irish Times reports.