Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Which political party has not sent in its names? Could the Taoiseach identify who has not responded to his request? We wrote back on 2 December with three names. Has the Fine Gael party finalised its nominees? There has been a kind of silence for the last couple of months. I note from previous meetings that we had during the last Government that the Taoiseach was, to be fair, decidedly unenthusiastic about the whole project. I heard recently that the former Senator, Mr. Maurice Manning, is a good cordial friend of the Taoiseach's and has had the occasional pint with the Taoiseach. He never mentioned anything to do with politics when he had the odd pint with the Taoiseach, but one would have thought that the old matter of the implementation of the Manning report might have surfaced as one pint turned to two or maybe even three. I thought it might have been slipped in at some stage. In a serious vein, we are all committed to it. We have compromised. Our position was for a stronger mass electorate, but we accepted the Manning compromise. It can be facilitated through legislation. Everyone in the House wants it to happen. As one of the Taoiseach's final acts before he hands on to his successor, perhaps he might get it up and running and get it formed.

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