Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I am reading from the annual report, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. There cannot be anything wrong with that. They wrote it themselves.

I am not blaming the Minister especially for this because his predecessors did it too. The people before him appointed party people as well. Members of the Government cannot resist the temptation, despite their commitment to ensuring cronyism would go from politics when they came to power. One of the great disappointments is that the Government has not kept to its promises in that regard or on interviewing potential appointees before Oireachtas committees. That was something it could have done at no cost to the Exchequer.

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