Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

-----such work may not have been able to be fulfilled. Be that as it may, Deputy Varadkar is to be commended onintroducing this legislation. It had its genesis in an all-party Seanad report from 2004. Deputy Brian Hayes, who was then a Senator, was involved, along with Senator Joe O'Toole, me and former Senator John Dardis. We had a Labour representative but as the debate went on he decided not to continue, which was his prerogative.

We brought forward a very well-thought out and well-focused Seanad report, of which we have heard no more but within that report Deputy Brian Hayes put forward a motion somewhat similar to what has been put forward here by Deputy Varadkar. There is much good in it. As Deputy Mansergh said, in the intervening time changes have been made to the appointments system which allow much greater transparency and accountability. I was glad to hear that the present Minister for Transport has sought expressions of interest from people willing and wishing to serve on the Dublin Transport Authority, which is to be welcomed.

I remember when I was involved in the Department dealing with public enterprise and the board of the ESB was due to be renewed or replaced. All of the people on the board approached me and there was a very fine woman member who was affiliated to the Labour Party. That was well known and she had been appointed by the previous Minister, a member of the Labour Party. I was quite happy to renew her membership, although sadly she passed away some time after that while in her prime. She was a very fine person and I knew her to be a very good appointee to the board. There was no reason for her not to remain on it.

Such a situation often occurs. I listened to Deputy Varadkar's contribution from my office and thought him to be very measured in his comments. I thought the Opposition indicated that if only it could get into power, it would put all kinds of fine people on boards. There is no doubt about that.

I have several demands for this legislation. Any person to be appointed should be qualified, capable, adaptable and intelligent, which is not too much to ask. The qualification should be relevant to the sphere of activity where the person is asked to serve. The person should be accountable to the chairman and the Minister of the day. That is recognised and would be applauded.

See this speech in context