Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I thank the Green Party for raising this issue. I am a little disappointed that a motion on transparency should be couched in such nebulous language. I am glad Senator Boyle outlined some detail because the motion contains very little firm detail, unlike Fine Gael's proposed amendment which sets out some very concrete proposals on how to change and improve the current system.

I agree with the point that party's Members made about putting people before the Oireachtas when deciding whether they should be appointed to the boards of public bodies. This function could be undertaken by committees or by the Seanad. This point was raised by Senator MacSharry. If the franchise of the Seanad were to be expanded to include all the electorate, it would mean that the public would be given an oversight function regarding appointments to the boards of public bodies and Senators would rightly be held accountable for any decisions taken about appointments to such boards. This would help to give greater public confidence in how the Seanad operates. It would be an ideal example of how Senators could bring their experience and skills to bear on the public good.

It is a common claim that appointments to public boards are not motivated by the public interest but rather by the desire to perform some act of political patronage. They are to ensure a party's influence continues on past the date of an election and this was a point made by Senator Walsh. It is clear that different Governments of all persuasions have used political appointments to ensure their members and supporters are in place after an election and have a place at the top table. We all recognise now that time has moved on and it is time to remove party politics from the appointment of people to these boards.

The Public Appointments Service and the Commission for Public Service Appointments were created to prevent political patronage and the tactical positioning of friends in public bodies. The commission states its mission is to support a process which upholds the principles of probity, merit, equity and fairness in recruitment and selection. However, this is contradicted and undermined by the non-transparent way in which the boards of such bodies are constituted. In fact, the most transparent method was in recent times when Deputy Bertie Ahern admitted he appointed his own friends to such positions.

This is the reason Fianna Fáil is so resistant to any change and the Green Party's motion supports the absence of probity, merit, equity and fairness in appointments to boards. This is a motion of inaction and not action, a piece of coalition bonding. Even the text of the motion suggests there has been interference. It asks us to recognise those who are and have been appointed to such bodies have done so with commitment and the following of principles of strong public service. The semantic non-sense of this phrase betrays the nonsense it appears to be articulating, namely, that appointees were selected on the basis of their commitment to public service. This is plainly not true, as Deputy Bertie Ahern himself has admitted. Senator Walsh said that people should be appointed on the basis of ability, capacity and skills but to date, there is no firm evidence that this has been the case.

Reform of the system is needed and has never been more timely. The Government is to set up the national asset management agency which will have the responsibility of buying up loans and property developments of up to €100 billion or perhaps less, as some Senators have argued. I do not wish to argue about the actual amount. It is clear we need to ensure appointments to and the operation of that agency must be completely transparent. We cannot afford to have this agency stuffed with friends of Fianna Fáil. It cannot be a place to put Cairde Fáil members. It has to be fully independent and non-political. It must serve the interests of the public and not the interests of the Galway tent or, as it is now, the Leopardstown tent. We all know the Galway tent has not disappeared; it has just moved 100 miles down the road. If the Green Party Members are serious about their motion, they will fight for the new agency to be put on a proper footing to ensure it is non-partisan and non-political and serves the public interest.

While I listened to Senator Boyle's contribution and I appreciate the arguments he made, the motion is too watered down and therefore we will be voting against it and with the Fine Gael amendment.