Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Minister spoke about diversity with regard to appointments to political boards. Does the Minister agree that after 11 years of Fianna Fáil in government, what most people think of in terms of diversity in State boards is the diversity of Fianna Fáil cumainn represented by many of the board members? That is, unfortunately, what people have begun to see. Historically, that may be a consequence, as I said, of Fianna Fáil's 11 years in government. However, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of bodies. Depending on how one counts them, we now have up to 800 boards, quangos and task forces of every kind. Does the Minister agree that it is now very difficult to get competent people to serve on boards? Does he agree that it is necessary to reform the appointment process? The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, may have picked someone who is good at maths to be an adviser on education, but does the Minister not think he might have been better advised to have a departmental official indicate the qualifications required to be an adviser on the costs of third level education?

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