Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will go back to my other point concerning some of the eminent people named in this House by the Deputies opposite. Association with politics or standing for public office is not a debarment to service. It is demeaning public life and democracy for anybody who has the courage to put their name on a ballot paper or who works in the political sphere to be designated as a crony. It might get short-term gain for the Deputies opposite but ultimately it does great damage to the democratic process. We are all, in parties and as Independents, seeking to get people involved in the political system. If we determine in this House that association with any of our political parties or with the political system would debar a person from being selected - even if one is eminently suitable, as many of the people listed by the Deputies opposite are - it will do our democracy a great disservice.

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