Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I echo the comments of Senator O'Donovan. I did not have the opportunity to pay tribute to the Cathaoirleach for the period I was in the Seanad in the last year. I enjoyed just one year of your tenure, a Chathaoirligh. If that was any indication of what I missed in the previous two years I regret it. I also pay tribute to the Clerk, the Clerk Assistant and all the wonderful staff. I was reinstated as a member of the Acting Cathaoirleach panel, which I deem a great privilege and honour, as do my colleagues. I thank Aisling Hart in particular who always looked after the rota in that regard. As a housekeeping issue I wanted to put that on the record and thank them sincerely. I hope I will have the opportunity to work with them in the future, but that will be up to the voters and the good Lord above.

I wish to raise something I have said in the past which is particularly relevant. I compliment the Government on the manner in which it has hit the ground running. All of us have put a fair wind behind it and hope in the country's interest it will succeed in its agenda. However, the media, to which I have referred as background noise, that was pummelling Fianna Fáil and the outgoing Government has stopped ever since the general election took place as we all expected. I ask that the Leader might initiate a debate on the media in the new Seanad. It is rather interesting that our friends in the media are giving the Government an extraordinary honeymoon - I do not mean that in any derogatory sense.

When we were on the Government side of the House and were criticising the media for taking particular positions, they always put themselves forward as being the watchdog for the public. I would hope they would now implement that philosophy a little more effectively because certainly reading it from this side of the House they are giving many of their stories a very soft focus. One in particular annoys me intensely and I have raised it on the Order of Business in the past, namely, the suggestion that Fianna Fáil exclusively as the outgoing Administration stuffed State boards with political appointees. I do not suggest that the manner in which this is done is right and I compliment the Government on the way in which it has set about trying to expand the membership of these boards by changing certain processes. However, hidden among all the stories in the media the one that is not highlighted is that ultimately the Minister will remain responsible, irrespective of all the window dressing surrounding people appearing before Oireachtas committees.

I refer to a matter about which I am annoyed. It is a matter of fact, recorded by those same media, that in 1997 the Rainbow Government also made appointments to State boards in its dying days. All I hope and have ever asked for is that a little bit of balance be injected into the debate on the ills and allegedly nefarious activities of the previous Government, particularly in respect of the making of State appointments in its outgoing days. My political philosophy has always been grounded on the notions of fairness, balance and objectivity, and my comments are addressed as much to the media as to the Leader and the rest on the Government side of the House. In 1997-----