Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I support the work of my colleague, Deputy Boyle, in putting this Bill together. As the House can see, from the outset the Bill was put forward in his name. It is all pretty much his work. Often Bills are initiated in the names of all of the Teachtaí Dála within the parliamentary party, but it is testament to Deputy Boyle's ownership of this Bill and to his capabilities to work with experts and to use his own nous that it was initiated in his name. I say this because I do not want to take any credit for the drawing up of the Bill, except in a role of moral support.

I want to outline why the Bill is important. We have seen numerous planning decisions in my constituency. Nine times out of ten, whether in the case of road proposals, the Adamstown plan or appeals on Quarryvale, An Bord Pleanála has been involved at some stage. I am not casting any aspersions on the board of An Bord Pleanála, but it is fair to say that in many instances nationwide the inspector's report tends to be overturned. In order to ensure transparency we need boards like that of An Bord Pleanála to be appointed totally independently without any political input in future.

The same would apply for any other State body such as those in the education field, for example. In the case of a number of Bills with which I have been involved during this Government's term of office, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, has been requested to allow certain bodies representation on a board and various education partners have been requested to be on the boards concerned because of their specific skill sets. The Minister has always stated that she retains the right to appoint and she will weigh it up on balance. That is not good for democracy. The Government has made many mistakes in education but the Minister is an honourable woman. Whatever her merits or the merits of existing or former Ministers, we must acknowledge that in the 85 year history of the State there have been some crooks in office and I make no bones about saying that. Even if there have been decent people in office who have not been under suspicion and who have had no hand, act or part in any corrupt, semi-corrupt or incompetent activities, taking such appointment decisions out of the hands of individual Ministers or the Cabinet is the safe action to take.

Recently at my party's Ard-Fheis I pointed to the case of people who serve in public bodies acting in a private capacity. I mentioned the former county manager in South Dublin suddenly working for Mr. Jim Mansfield and I mentioned Colm Tyndall, a local councillor, suddenly working for developer Con McCarthy, and, coincidentally, buying a house right next door to him. These are all people trying to do their jobs in private enterprise and there should be no aspersions cast on their good character, but public bodies and public servants going to work in the private sector should be subject to some form of control. In the case of public servants going into the private sector, my colleague Deputy Cuffe suggested a cooling off period.

This Bill is about how people are appointed to public boards. We have seen the suspicion that has been cast on the body politic by all sorts of payments to politicians. We have seen that people have ever less faith in the political process. We also see anecdotally how people always refer to jobs for the boys, as Deputy Boyle mentioned, regarding appointments to boards. Whether they be up and coming Teachtaí Dála, Senators or people who have lost their seats, it is like a pat on the head, saying well done and giving a few quid to keep him or her going. That is not the way business should be done. That is why we need proper prescriptive legislation, which recognises the merits of people, which allows for a process whereby an Oireachtas committee on public bodies could see whether the people nominated are of the highest ability. Such a committee might merely involve a exercise in rubber-stamping, but only when the necessary criteria have been met and aspersions cannot be cast in respect of the persons to be appointed. It is the correct way to do it and I wholeheartedly support my colleague's Bill.

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