Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Taoiseach it is a very positive development that the chairs of these boards are now coming before Oireachtas committees and have an opportunity to set out for themselves in a clear way the vision they have for the development of their respective organisations in the years ahead, and also that the representatives of the political parties, and of none, have the opportunity through the Oireachtas committees to engage with these people, put questions to them and tease out the agenda they have. That is entirely positive and I commend the Taoiseach on it. It is a pity that initiative was not taken many years ago.

I put it to the Taoiseach, however, that there still is considerable political influence at play in how people are appointed to these boards, irrespective of the involvement of the State Appointments Commission. I am not convinced there is anything in particular wrong with that but there certainly is something wrong in suggesting that although it was wrong for the previous Administration to do this it is in some way right if this Administration proceeds to do the same. It is alleged against the previous Government that a multiplicity of appointments was made in the interregnum between the completion of the term of the last Government and the beginning of the new Government, but that was nothing different to what had happened down through the generations. The Taoiseach's party, when in Government, did it; so did the Labour Party. The Taoiseach's Government will probably do it again when its current term of office finishes.

I refer to the business of monitoring by committees of the efficacy of the appointed boards, which is of considerable importance. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, was in the Chamber until just a while ago and this is a matter we have been exploring over the course of Question Time. I welcome that the Taoiseach is asking Ministers to monitor how the State boards are performing. That is good, and fair enough. The Taoiseach needs to go a step further, however. These boards are of significant importance and the people who serve on them consider themselves privileged to be doing so. I encourage the Taoiseach to encourage his Ministers to devise some kind of formal process of assessment so that the boards can understand they have a challenge to live up to and that the objectives set out by the chair when the chair meets with the Oireachtas committees are being assessed, at least on an annual basis. In this way the boards can be given the challenge of working towards the agenda which has been set out for them and they can produce, to the Oireachtas, the Minister or whomsoever, annual reports that indicate the progress that been made.

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