Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 76: To ask the Minister for Transport the members of the National Transport Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6556/10]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Transport Authority comprises a chairperson, three ex officio members and eight ordinary members. The chairperson and eight ordinary members must be persons who, in the opinion of the Minister for Transport, have wide experience regarding transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration.

On 1 December 2009, I appointed the following people to the new authority: Mr. John Fitzgerald, chairperson; Mr. Gerry Murphy, chief executive, ex officio; Mr. John Tierney, Dublin city manager, ex officio; Mr. Frank King, ordinary member; Ms. Linda Saunders, ordinary member; Mr. Damian Usher, ordinary member; and Dr. Berna Grist, ordinary member. I am satisfied the members of the authority have wide experience in relevant areas. It is my intention to fill the remaining vacancies on the authority at an early stage. One of those vacancies is reserved for a senior National Transport Authority manager specified by the National Transport Authority chairperson with my consent.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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How many positions will be reserved for the card-carrying members of Fianna Fáil? Most of the Minister's appointees - I exclude civil servants and members of State companies such as those mentioned by him - are connected to Fianna Fáil. He has appointed a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen throughout the country to bodies that give incomes of €12,600 or more. The key point is the need for transparency and accountability.

All the Minister's appointments should be subject to the consent of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport. Appointees would not be asked by the committee whether they have ever been a member of Fianna Fáil, because that would be taken for granted in respect of many of them, but about their knowledge and experience of the business they are about to enter. The Minister is not being accountable in a transparent way, as is the case with some other Ministers. In fairness to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, he has been much more transparent in putting nominations before committees or asking committees to make nominations. This is better than drawing appointees from cumanna throughout the country.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is talking nonsense. He talks about a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen and so on.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The question is: who is in Dempsey's den?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As I said to Deputy Broughan previously, being a member of Fianna Fáil should not preclude one from being appointed to a board. I always approach appointments to a board in an open and transparent manner. I try to find the best people possible and if they happen to be members of Fianna Fáil or Fianna Fáil supporters, I will not exclude them for that reason, no more than I would exclude them because they might be supporters or members of Fine Gael. I do not inquire into their political allegiance.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The Minister appoints Fianna Fáil people exclusively.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I happen to know the political allegiances of some of the people I appoint but I do not know the political allegiances of the vast majority of the people I appointed. In this case the Deputy should recall that I invited people to nominate themselves if they had an interest in this and I selected the people from the list of those who applied. I will examine that list again before I fill the remaining positions and if there are suitable people on that list, I will appoint them. If not, as the original list was for the DTA, I will try to find the most suitable people.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Would the Minister not get a committee to nominate?

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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On behalf of the Labour Party I proposed that the members of the National Transport Authority should be elected by the people in the local elections. People could then wear their party colours if they wanted to. In many countries the transport authority is so important it is elected.

I address this question to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I have had about 140 or 150 questions ruled out in the past year and a half which related to agencies such as the National Transport Authority. The National Transport Authority is just up and running, the website has only recently been set up and immediately six or seven questions were ruled out. Can anything be done about this kind of thing - not the events of recent days - brings Parliament into disrepute?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That issue is currently before the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and no doubt the Deputy will talk to his representatives on that committee. It is a matter that a number of Deputies have raised.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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It is very frustrating.

First, we heard yesterday that the heads of the Bill for the election of a Dublin mayor, the mayor of the four counties of Dublin, will be brought forward this year. What is the current position? The mayor was to be the chair of the transport authority, which was then extended to the whole nation. Will it not be a farce if we do not give the mayor a major input into transport?

Second, what is the current status of the National Transport Authority? How many staff has it got currently? I am aware the website is operating, its functions are set out, and Mr. Murphy invited Opposition spokespersons to a briefing, but to what extent is it up and running? Has it taken over the functions of the Dublin Transportation Office or how much further has it gone?

In that context, what is the current status of the taxi commission? Has the taxi commission effectively been abolished, with the National Transport Authority now the regulator of taxis?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Regarding the directly elected mayor of Dublin and the role he or she might play in respect of transport, as I told the Deputy previously, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, and myself are working together on the directly elected mayor Bill to ensure he or she has a meaningful role in the Dublin region in respect of transport and transport infrastructure. As the Deputy rightly said, the original Bill was for the Dublin transport authority and it covered only the greater Dublin region and had specific powers and functions regarding land use, transport, traffic management and so on. We are devising a mechanism whereby all those powers that were contained within the DTA Bill will be contained within the National Transport Authority, and the mayor will head that particular part of the authority. He or she will have a meaningful role in regard to transport. It is important that he or she would have-----

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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There would be two chairs.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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No. There will not be two chairs. There will be a national chair and a Dublin transport council-----

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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In that case it will be a farce.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy-----

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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It will be just like the old days, with John Fitzgerald telling the mayor what to do. I lived through that. It was a total farce.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Deputy, allow the Minister to reply.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is not showing much faith in the democratic process by which the directly elected mayor will be elected rather than appointed by anybody. He or she will have very strong powers and will be able to head up regional authorities. We must wait and see what happens.

On the taxi regulator, the taxi regulator will be subsumed into the National Transport Authority. Obviously, discussions have to take place from the point of view of industrial relations and so on but it will be subsumed some time over the course of the next year.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Would the Minister not agree that stuffing the boards of many of these agencies up and down the country with Fianna Fáil henchmen, which is what they are, brings the whole process into disrepute? Will he not further agree that it is time to scrap that out of date, Tammany Hall system and move to a new system where nominations are announced in the newspapers and people who wish to apply would go before the transport committee or another committee with accountability to the Minister and the Department. They would go through the names and appoint to that board the people who are best qualified. I have seen fine people kicked off boards because they were not of the Minister's kin and colour, and that is not acceptable in modern Ireland.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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It is Question Time, Deputy.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I love the way the Deputy would consider political people appointing people to a board as being more acceptable than-----

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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No. It is transparent and open.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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The Green Party got its portion.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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This is a transparent and open process, and people see it. I am answerable in the House for it. This board answers to me and I need a board that I can trust and that will not play politics one way or the other. That is why I pick as many people as I possibly can who I can trust to do the job on the board. Any of these people will stand up to scrutiny, regardless of whether they are members of Fianna Fáil on any of the boards I picked.