Time for Ross to parade controversial judicial appointments Bill

Like a proud owner bringing his perfectly coiffed, rosette bearing pooch out before the main crowd at Crufts, Shane Ross will today parade his controversial Judicial Appointments Commission Bill before the Dáil for all to see.

The problem is that the crowd will not see the thoroughbred piece of reform Ross believes his legislation to be, but an unwanted, rain drenched mongrel they would prefer never to have laid eyes on.

Fine Gael does not really favour Ross's proposals to reform how judges are appointed - with an appointments commission with a lay chair and lay majority at its heart - but is holding its nose for the sake of the Government. Fianna Fáil is voting against it but the Bill will pass because of Sinn Féin support.

The judiciary itself is up in arms, with Chief Justice Susan Denham and the presidents of the Court of Appeal, High Court, Circuit Court and District Court making their views known in an unprecedented letter to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Their main concerns are understood to centre on the diminution of the role of the Chief Justice in appointments and the lay majority on the new commission.

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It is the latest salvo in a heavy lobbying campaign from the judiciary as they seek to stop Ross’s Bill - due to pass before the summer recess - at the last.

But there is no sign of wavering from Government Buildings, despite Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan sending a text critical of Mr Ross to his party backbenchers and encouraging them to speak out on the Bill.

Flanagan later sent a note to the entire Fine Gael parliamentary party claiming that he is fully behind the Bill, arousing suspicions among backbenchers that he had been ordered to do so.

Varadkar’s spokesman insisted this was not the case, and that Flanagan’s staff had decided to put out the note themselves. Yet senior figures were obviously sensitive about offending Ross, who was told that the party would be sending out the clarifying note on Flanagan’s behalf.

The relationship between Flanagan and the Independents is not the warmest in Government, with figures such as Ross and his colleague Finian McGrath of the view that the Laois TD was one of the Fine Gaelers who took too long to fully accept them as Coalition partners. The exchanges around the Cabinet table this morning could be interesting.

But all the noise does not look likely to derail the Bill, and Ross has a letter in today's Irish Times defending its measures. It should pass all stages in the Oireachtas in the next few weeks, although there is speculation of some Opposition amendment further clarifying the role of the commission chair.

Ross will be able to relax over the summer in the knowledge that one of his main aims in government has been achieved, even if other TDs cannot exactly figure out why the reforms were needed in the first place - and will probably repeal the legislation if Ross is not a member of the next government.