Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

There are many good schemes. Gaisce, the President's award, is one scheme that challenges young people to use their leisure time for positive development for the betterment of their communities. The Aosdána award is in place for artists. The Deeds of Bravery Council makes awards for the saving of human life in situations involving personal risk. The Scott medal is awarded to members of the Garda and there is a military medal for gallantry as well as a distinguished service medal for the Army. The Michael Heffernan memorial award covers the area of the marine and natural resources. Honorary citizenship is also awarded, although very sparingly — Chester Beatty, Dr. and Mrs. Herrema, Tip O'Neill, Jack Charlton, Derek Hill and a few others received that award. While all those awards are fine, they are very limited and, collectively, are small enough, although the Gaisce award is perhaps not so.

I am sure the Deputy heard me explain I do not favour a system that would confer a title or titles. I suggested that any scheme would operate within the existing constitutional framework and would involve the conferring of public awards or citations. We are talking about people who are involved in good deeds.

Deputy McGrath asked me a series of questions on this issue last year and I replied that such awards would be made to recognise exceptional service to mankind, outstanding achievement which confers international distinction on Ireland, conspicuous service to Ireland and Irish people, or pre-eminent inspiration or contribution in any field of Irish life, usually but not necessarily of a national character, with the emphasis on voluntary and community services. The system would have to be categorised as being open to any man or woman in the country, young or old, not someone who did something great last Saturday, although at times that might be acceptable.

We all know there is a huge number of people who do outstanding things because we see or hear of them in our public lives. However, they are never recognised because we do not have such a scheme, although practically every other country does. We had a row on this. I read the file and skimmed over it again at the weekend, although I did not re-read it in full. Looking back, one can see the issue concerned the Republic and other such arguments.

To be fair, across the water, in what is another establishment and another country, while their system may have other problems, their problem with finance concerned the House of Lords and the title system, with people wanting to become a member of a House of Parliament. We are not talking about such a system.

There is nothing wrong with the People of the Year awards or any of the county or sporting awards, which are all good awards, but we are out of step as we do not have national recognition for our people. There are open views on whether we should have one, but we should have some system.

The second point concerns transparency. The system would require a politically agreed panel that would examine this. If it was to be close to any other system, it would have to be done by a group. While the Government of the day might pass recommendations to the President, it would be best to have nothing to do with the system other than that. The decision should be made by whatever would be an acceptable advisory group.

I will make a third point but I do not want it to be misunderstood because it is good when an Irish person is honoured by another government, whether nearby or far away. Increasingly, the British Government is honouring Irish people with distinctions, of which there has been a number. It is happening nearly every quarter. I can nearly tell when it will occur because it has been that way for five years. Some accept honours, while others do not, but that is a matter for them. Whenever I am asked — a regulatory or legal provision — I always say yes because it is an honour for the individual involved. If it continues for the next ten years, that will be great but as they are Irish people, I would like to think we will recognise them because we are all proud of them. We have seen this happen in a number of categories, including broadcasters, sports people, business people and writers. They are from different backgrounds. I do not think the British Government or Monarchy is picking them for any reason other than the fact that they have achieved an extraordinary task. It would be nice if we recognised their achievements, not only for them but for the people generally. It would be a fitting tribute to them. I am sure Deputies Kenny and Gilmore regularly meet people around the country who have given service for half a century to a charitable or community organisation, but they receive no national recognition. I am sure it is not a big deal for most of them but it would be nice to have such a system.

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