Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Based on what Senator Leyden said, it is clear how much influence Fianna Fáil backbenchers have over Fianna Fáil policy. It makes no sense to exclude members of local authorities from membership of a body such as this. There is an active citizenship commission travelling around the country trying to persuade people to get involved, and we know that people are reluctant to get involved in politics.

Politics has a bad name and if I was in a cranky humour, I could say who caused it but I will not do so. As I have often said, when my children were in their late teens, they would always say that their father was a lecturer in an institute of technology rather than a politician. That was safer territory because they did not know what they would get into if they said otherwise.

I would love the Minister of State to give me a reason there would be some significant conflict of interest between the role and activities of a member of a local authority and the activities of the body in question. If there is a reason, I will listen to it. I am also intrigued by the fact that, as usual and as noted by Senator Browne, Members of the Oireachtas and the European Parliament cannot be appointed to this body.

However, according to section 14, if a member of the body subsequently becomes a Member of the Oireachtas, he or she does not have to leave office. There is no mention of that in section 14. Reference is made to bankrupts, criminals and all the other things. It is usually bankrupts, criminals and Members of the Houses of Oireachtas, but somebody has found a cleaner way of dealing with it. As it stands, under section 14, the reasons somebody must leave office once he or she is appointed do not include membership of the Houses of Oireachtas. They cannot be appointed to the authority, but once they are members, they do not have to leave and this is also true of members of local authorities. It is partly because these sections are simply being cut and pasted from one place to another. I have missed it but I could not find mention of becoming a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas in section 14. A person cannot be appointed by the Minister if he or she is a dreadful thing like a Deputy, Senator or councillor, but once he or she is a member of the body, if he or she becomes one of these dreadful things, he or she cannot be removed.