Seán Dorgan (Fianna Fail)

I beg your pardon. It is a privilege to work with them and their contribution to the recent election campaign has been invaluable. I acknowledge the other new Senators appointed by the Taoiseach for the remainder of this session. Senator Cassidy's knowledge of the Seanad is unmatched and his return to the position of Leader of the House has been widely welcomed. Both Senator Sands and Senator Wall represent an essential but rarely acknowledged part of our democracy. They have been active in politics longer than most but it has never been a career for them. Their contribution has been to work in their communities on behalf of their party and its representatives. They have also distinguished themselves in other areas of public and community service. I acknowledge also the appointment of Senator O'Gorman.

It is simply not possible to have a healthy democracy without a broad base of activists within all our parties. There are many countries where parties have tiny memberships and little direct contact with the public and where politics is something which takes place in the media alone. Thankfully, that is not the case in Ireland. Comparative surveys clearly show that the Irish electorate has more contact with its public representatives than political parties in almost any other in Europe. I acknowledge the importance of political activists across all parties. They are the life blood of our democracy and, more particularly, I express my gratitude to those many tens of thousands of members of my own party who work extraordinarily hard and whose critical role in the past election campaign will probably only be fully appreciated in years to come.

There is a growing cynicism towards politics in some quarters which is also directed at the electorate when it chooses to make up its own mind. This is deeply misplaced and is based on little more than a dismissive and simplistic caricature of what motivates people to be involved in politics. The overwhelming majority of people involved in politics give a huge amount of time and receive nothing in return but the satisfaction of working for people and ideas in which they believe. In the recent general election campaign, tens of thousands of political activists from all political parties and none worked for weeks and months in advance of polling day. For a country of our size, this is significant and should be cherished and nurtured and not lightly dismissed. All political parties have a duty to do more to encourage more people to get involved and to value and encourage their contributions.

The Bill is the final element in the process of forming the Government which emerged following the recent general election. The Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil fought that election on the basis of a positive manifesto. Having agreed a programme for Government with coalition partners, the Taoiseach has now decided the make-up of the ministerial team to implement the programme and the roles they are to fulfil. The programme for Government is very ambitious. While it has as its foundation an absolute commitment to protecting prosperity, it also involves significant steps forward on issues such as the elderly, disability and the environment.

It is an accepted form of modern government that many of the most significant challenges require a cross-government approach. While Cabinet committees have an important role to play, the most effective way to push policy development and action is to have one person responsible on a day-to-day basis for bringing together the different strands. The work of the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in children's policy showed us all how effective this can be. With the growing complexity of government and the range of issues that can only be reasonably addressed through a genuinely interdepartmental leadership, I welcome the Taoiseach's proposal to extend the number and range of Ministers of State.

It is very easy to dismiss, as the Opposition has done, every political job as jobs for the boys. However, this misses a fundamental fact: the people elect politicians to govern and to make a difference. Within a framework, with many limits and oversight mechanisms, the number of ministerial posts that will be put in place if the Bill is passed will be perfectly reasonable and will better enable the Government, returned by the people, to implement its programme.