That is not what Mr Allister was saying earlier. He was very critical of the role of politicians in the appointment of judges, yet he is just after saying that it is all right. If one goes back to Hansard, one will identify that Mr Allister, throughout his speech, did not indicate that that was the case at all.
As part of the checks and balances and democratic accountability throughout the process, a strong judiciary is very important for a strong democracy and vice versa. In the checks and balances that we have now, the scales are tipped very heavily in favour of the judiciary vis-à-vis the democratic system. That places a greater incumbency on the judiciary to carefully exercise its very significant powers. It is not the judiciary’s role to overturn decisions that it does not like; it is the judiciary’s role to ensure that the law is upheld. Nor is it appropriate for the judiciary to be striking down decisions that have been arrived at rationally and, indeed, reasonably on the basis of some technicalities. The judiciary needs to reflect upon that and respect that.
Being a Minister does not make one perfect, and nor does going into a studio as a journalist or a broadcaster make those individuals perfect. Indeed, when a very able Queen’s Counsel dons a wig and sits on the bench, that does not make them perfect. We reserve the right to criticise the decision of judges. Judges can be very wise, but that does not make them infallible. They can be very knowledgeable, but that does not make them omniscient. They can be very powerful, but that does not make them omnipotent. Those powers all lie with another judge, whom we will all face one day. We reserve the right to challenge decisions that we do not believe to be good decisions. Last week, indeed, our Director of Public Prosecutions was in conflict with the courts over a decision that was made. On balance, from what I have heard thus far, I am with the Director of Public Prosecutions on the issue that was involved. The law was not fully and, possibly, properly observed in that particular decision-making process.
The Executive have been elected, through the Assembly, to govern. Judicial authority that diminishes the ability of the Executive or, indeed, the Assembly to carry out their role of governance is something that should be exercised with extreme caution. For example, the Executive’s number one priority in the last mandate was the economy. That was tested through the Programme for Government. We had all of the consultations, and the commitment was made. However, when Ministers, Departments and arm’s-length bodies went about delivering on that commitment, they were, on occasions, undermined by judicial decisions. That was undermining the will of the people of Northern Ireland. That is something, therefore, that we need to be very careful about in the future.
We will have to continue with the system that we have, because of the nature of politics in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, we need to make it very clear today that, in the delivery of judicial powers, full and proper respect must be given to the politicians and elected Government of Northern Ireland so that they can carry out their duties in a very open, honest and frank way on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, with as little judicial interference as possible.
