Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

That the Minister of State will not be accepting the amendment is not surprising. For his information, Stalin had nothing to do with socialism. We call that system Stalinism - the horrific totalitarian perversion of the great revolution of the Russian working class and peasantry when they overthrew a horrific dictatorship.

The attitude to this proposal is not at all surprising. The Minister of State said in his remarks that he does not want to narrow the expertise that would be required, but it has been narrowed down to financiers and corporate interests, including big bankers such as Goldman Sachs. The Minister of State has no problem putting people with that type of track record on the board of this crucial agency. In view of the points made on Second and Committee Stages with regard to the need for a major infrastructural drive in the development of social and affordable homes, it is all the more urgent that people who have expertise in dealing with the housing crisis would be involved here. It is clear that the range of so-called expertise outlined by the Government includes people dealing with the financial markets, corporate financing and speculation and wheeling and dealing. These are the same people who wrecked an entire economy and internationally created massive suffering for hundreds of millions of people. The Government stands shamed in narrowing down the potential board to such a class of persons.

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