Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

We have in mind a system of public appointment. I considered all the possibilities involving some competition. However, I am sure that a top executive in a bank, chemical company, computer company or whatever would not submit himself or herself to a public examination before the Houses of the Oireachtas and then rejection in some competitive process or to controversy in such circumstances. One of the problems we have in public appointments is that the more nominally transparent and accountable the process of appointment, frequently the greater the reluctance of anybody with intelligence in their head to get involved in the process. They do not want people standing up and decrying them in speeches and pointing out that they have a first cousin with a criminal conviction. They will not go down that road if we have a process equivalent to the American Senate hearings for judges. They will just say that life is too short to be humiliated in public and have their life turned over in public.

Of course character background investigations for these people will be required because it would cause great scandal if a corrupt or compromised person was appointed to one of these positions and it would destroy the Government that attempted to do it.

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