Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is around here a long time and knows as well as I do that in the past Governments did this all the time. I raised this matter with my predecessor here, the former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen and suggested to him there should be no appointments made between the dissolution of the Dáil and the formation of the new Government. That was advance advice, but the Ministers of his Government did not heed that advice and went ahead and made 110 appointments.

Having taken the advice of the Attorney General, I will not go down the road of technical legislation or anything like that - we are stuck with it. That is why I have introduced changes that will bring about transparency and accountability to this area.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food made a recommendation to Cabinet yesterday for the appointment of the chairman of Bord na gCon because there are some issues there that need to be attended to as a matter of urgency. That chairman will have to go before the appropriate agriculture committee to give his views on how the board should be run, his vision for it, the competencies he brings to the position and how he views the future for the board. As in all other cases, that will be available as a public discourse between the committee dealing with agriculture and the appointee to Bord na gCon.

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