Shane Ross (Independent)

I welcome the liveliness of the debate. I would like to thank Senators Norris, Quinn and Henry, Fine Gael and the Labour Party for their support for this. I am somewhat puzzled by Senator O'Toole's lack of support, but he is a law unto himself. This is particularly true as regards this motion, because last year I had a motion on the Order Paper, which stated: "Seanad Éireann calls on the Government to end the practice of making political appointments to semi-State bodies." There were four signatures on that, Senators Ross, Norris, Henry and O'Toole.