Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

For decades the system of appointments to State boards by the Government has been discredited because of the array of political hacks of the parties in power promoted to boards as a reward for service to their parties. The Government promised many changes in respect of this and other matters, but is it not the case that, apart from a few cosmetic changes, it has not changed the system fundamentally? Does the Taoiseach agree that the representation of those sections of society especially affected by the work of particular boards should have a democratic structure, thereby providing real expertise and knowledge, instead of continuing in a disguised fashion the old discredited crony system?

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