Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The real issue is the appointment of incompetent and poorly qualified people to many boards. While many good people serve on boards, there is no way to evaluate people's capacity to contribute to any board. The fact that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has finally reformed that most appalling of systems, the appointments to prison visiting committees, is not worthy of congratulation. It should have been done 40 years ago. There are all kinds of bodies to which people seek appointment.

Notwithstanding my reservations, this is the most innocuous of motions, which is why I cannot understand why it has not been signed by all the Independent Senators. It calls for Seanad Éireann "to reform the practice". Does anybody really believe it could not be done better with a degree of transparency, openness and evaluation? Even if the credentials of prospective members had to be looked at and they were required to outline their knowledge and expertise to some body of the Houses of the Oireachtas, they would not have to do so. I know of cases of appointments to State bodies that are in the gift of a Minister, where the first that people heard was on receipt of a letter asking them to serve. In one instance, because of place of residence, the person concerned could accumulate at least €40,000 or €50,000 a year in travel expenses alone. If I were to mention the name, Members would wonder what expertise the individual had.

Not only should a person's political affiliations not inhibit his or her membership, but in the case of my party and given its world view, many State bodies should make it a requirement that people with sympathies with my party are appointed to their boards to ensure that some of the daftness of the so-called private enterprise ethos in this country was dealt with. It follows, therefore, that boards need to contain members who have a view of the world that conforms with the Government's. I have no problem with this, provided they can do the job properly, their perks are not excessive, their roles are clear and they are governed by the proper rules of corporate governance. All of this could be done under the motion.

However this Government, dominated by Fianna Fáil, has a brass neck asking us to accept an amendment which "acknowledges and endorses a commitment to good governance in semi-State bodies" even as in the other House it is dismantling the Local Appointments Commission to ensure its cronies can be appointed on a town by town, locality by locality basis bypassing the well established objective system of the Local Appointments Commission. It cannot explain why it is taking apart this system that worked. However, we know why. It will allow it to do even more.

The Progressive Democrats show great naivety in believing it could reform a party whose only raison d'être is patronage. If Fianna Fáil were ever out of Government for successive terms of office, the party would fall apart as it has no raison d'être other than the provision and dispensing of patronage on a grand scale.