Shane Ross (Independent)

I do not have sufficient time, but I may touch on the matter in my summing up. The Labour Party was as culpable as the Fianna Fáil Party at that time, promoting their friends and relations to jobs, and also creating jobs for them which are now a constant embarrassment and which cost the party the 1997 general election. That was a high price to pay, but ultimately people were waiting for the Labour Party and took it out on this point. Such behaviour may bring short-term political gain but creates long-term political loss.

Some of the boards are worse than others, and some of the practices on some of the boards are worse than others. Aer Lingus has traditionally been given as a perk to people who have shown immense loyalty to a party. It is of course not coincidental that they receive free first-class travel around the world for themselves and their spouses. That is one of the perks of office and it is well known that friends of the Taoiseach have appeared on the Aer Lingus board. For a long time Aer Rianta looked to some extent like a meeting of a Fianna Fáil national executive, with Mr. Noel Hanlon and Mr. Dermot O'Leary, who both have very strong Fianna Fáil credentials, Mr. Tadhg O'Donoghue and others sitting there and no doubt deciding the future of Aer Rianta on the basis not only of their great skills, which were in doubt, but their loyalty to the Government.

We must ask whether taxpayers' money is being used for the reward of political loyalty or the good of taxpayers and the companies about which we are talking. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that it is being used as a reward for political loyalty. The evidence for that is very clear. Let us examine what happens to those companies when they come from the semi-State sector into the IPOs as with Eircom. As the Leader is well aware, in that case several members of that board were removed very skilfully. One rather stubbornly and stupidly refused to go and made something of a fool of himself by doing so. It was necessary to remove a large number of those board members from the semi-State body because no investors from the commercial sector would have confidence in them. Where that happened, they appointed people in whom it was perceived the commercial sector would have more confidence. The Leader did the same when she was Minister, when she appointed Mr. Tom Mulcahy, which was a fine appointment.