The current debate about the reform of the method of appointment of judges and magistrates further demonstrates that the Constitutional Convention should be convened with urgency.

The matter is one of a constitutional nature and forms the core of a wider package of reforms dealing with the judiciary that was elevated for the first time to the parliamentary agenda more than four years ago by myself.

This was by means of a private members’ motion about major reforms in Justice and Home Affairs of November 8, 2011, subsequently confirmed by the Bonello Report (2013), the greater part of which, in fact, is very similar to the motion.

If the convention is the forum within which these proposals and others are to be debated, in view of the current controversy it should be immediately convened in the national interest and in a spirit of unity.