Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I welcome the Green Party's decision to raise the issue of the manner of the appointment of individuals to public bodies. I have often raised this issue in the House during my ten years as a Deputy.

The State's system of public appointments is rife with patronage; it is anti-democratic and open to mass abuse. Fianna Fáil has been a past master in this regard, but only because it is the party which has spent the longest time in government since the foundation of the State. All the political parties which have spent time in government throughout the history of the State have used their positions, where possible, to promote party members or supporters to the boards of public bodies. Individuals were appointed to prestigious State boards because they were hacks of the political parties which happened to be in power. They were not appointed because of any expertise they were able to bring to the position. Such behaviour constitutes a gross abuse of public bodies, State and semi-State industries, the employees of those industries and taxpayers.

Five outgoing Fianna Fáil Ministers stuffed 60 nominees onto a range of State boards after the 2002 general election, before a new Government was put in place. During last autumn's controversy involving the payment of money to the Taoiseach, it emerged that five of the Taoiseach's 12 friends who assisted him financially had been appointed to important public bodies in the State, including Aer Lingus, the Central Bank, the Dublin Port Authority and Enterprise Ireland. The Taoiseach let it slip that they had been appointed because they were friends of his. Such a system is rotten to the core. There is no question about this.

I would like to highlight another key factor which is separate to the cronyism evident in the way State boards have been appointed by Governments and the political parties which have comprised those Governments. It seems Governments appoint their ideological friends to these positions. Persons who are in favour of privatisation, for example, are appointed to key positions in public bodies. When the Government disgracefully moved to privatise Aer Lingus, a crucial public body, were those on the board so committed to public ownership that they were prepared to voice publicly their opposition to the disgraceful proposal? It was radically opposed by representatives of the workers and the trade unions, as well as many other members of society.

I welcome this debate and I am pleased Deputy Boyle has raised this issue. The Socialist Party would take a more radical approach than that envisaged in this legislation. The boards of crucial State companies such as Aer Lingus should be democratically elected, rather than appointed. The board of Aer Lingus, for example, should be elected from among that company's workers who over decades have developed the State and semi-State company in question into a premier service for the people, making enormous sacrifices along the way. They know inside out how the company and its services operate and how such operations could be greatly improved. The users of the services of State and semi-State companies should be democratically elected to the boards of such companies. People who regularly travel on and use the services of Aer Lingus for their work or holiday and personal travel should be allowed to bring their expertise to the board. This model could be applied to bodies across the spectrum of Irish society, including the health service, which would be transformed if they were opened to the fresh winds of democratic accountability and the democratic election of those who run them, rather than being subject by Government diktat to further layers of bureaucracy at the top.

Mar fhocal scoir, cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo, atá curtha ar aghaidh ag an Chomhaontas Ghlas, atá ag iarraidh athchóiriú a dhéanamh ar an bpróiséas ceapacháin chomhaltaí na boird agus chomhlachtaí Stáit, agus postanna speisialta áirithe eile. Ba cheart go mbeadh an próiséas daonlathach amach is amach. Ní ceart go mbeadh an Rialtas in ann a chairde fhéin a shá isteach sna boird tábhachtacha seo ar mhaithe leis na hAirí agus na páirtithe polaitíochta a chruthaigh an chóras a bhí agus atá ann go dtí an pointe seo. Ba cheart go ndéanfaí córas daonlathach, ina gcuirfí chun cinn lucht oibre — na daoine a úsáideann an tseirbhís — agus go rachfaidís ar aghaidh chun a bheith tofa go dtí na boird seo, agus chun seirbhís dá bhrí sin a chur ar fáil agus comhlachtaí a thógaint ar aghaidh a n-oibreódh i ndáiríre mar sheirbhís do mhuintir na tíre seo.

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