Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This Government, for the first time in the history of the State, has created an expressions of interest facility to invite people in the public domain who consider themselves to be suitably qualified to apply for appointment to a particular State board. Many people have done so and have been subsequently appointed. The proposition from Deputy O'Brien that somebody ought to be automatically disqualified because he or she may have some political allegiance is a proposition I utterly reject. I would have expected the Deputy to reject it too given that in the short time his party has been in government in Northern Ireland, it nominated Lynn Boylan as chair of safefood.

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