Ross and the waffle brigade

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN would have added the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill to the inevitability of death and taxes had he been in the Seanad recently. The Minister for Justice’s interminable answers to the unending objections to it convinces no one he supports Shane Ross’s Bill.

But the word ‘filibuster’ (definition: ‘an action such as prolonged speaking which obstructs progress in a legislative assembly’) invites the wrath of those engaged in it... Senator Ivana Bacik was outraged when accused of ‘waffling’.

The keenest supporter of the Bill is Sinn Féin, who Ross once said were more defined by hatred of the UK than love for Ireland.