Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I am grateful to Senator Alex White for sharing time. I, too, commend the university Senators, particularly Senator Ross, on introducing this excellent Bill. Others have commented on its genesis and the fact that it is so closely reflective of the Appointments to Public Bodies Bill 2007 introduced by Senator Boyle and his colleagues in the Green Party, who were in opposition at the time. That Bill was defeated on Second Stage on 28 March 2007. It is a shame the Green Party cannot support this Bill, particularly because there is in the renewed programme for Government, agreed on 10 October, a commitment to introduce on a legislative basis a more open and transparent system for appointments to public bodies. Having listened to Senator Boyle, I would have believed he would be in favour of this legislation considering it is similar to his own Bill. I understand the Green Party and its colleagues in Government will not be supporting it.

The Bill is long overdue and there is no question about that. All Members on both sides are agreed on that. The reality of cronyism and patronage and the fact that they are rife in public life and in the making of appointments to public bodies are accepted. Senator Alex White referred to particular examples. We are all aware of patronage.

In 2005 I was on a body called the Democracy Commission, which I hasten to add was not a public body in that its members were not appointed by a Minister. Its members included Senator Hanafin, from the other side of the House. The body was set up by TASC and it considered ways in which we could improve democracy and make a case for democratic renewal in Ireland. Key to our recommendations was one that there be greater scrutiny of appointments to public bodies. We argued:

The Standards in Public Office Commission should be given powers to draft guidelines for appointments to the boards of non departmental public bodies... This process should be subject to the scrutiny of the Oireachtas. Similarly the appointment of the chair of each commercial state body and of the larger non-commercial bodies should be subject to ratification by the Seanad or relevant Oireachtas committee.

Central to that recommendation was our great concern over the proliferation of non-departmental public bodies. We stated in 2005 that the number of such bodies at national level was approximately 500, with a further 400 operating at regional and local levels. Up to half of those had come into existence in the preceding ten years. There is clearly an issue associated with the lack of transparency in the appointment to those bodies. Ministers are currently responsible for appointing the majority of members to the boards of the bodies and, at present, there is no clearly defined mechanism to ensure appointments are free from undue political or other influences. It may not be a question of political party affiliation. It may simply be a question of friendship or offering a reward for favours done. I do not mean this necessarily in a corrupt way but refer to appointing someone as a way of thanking them. This is not the way in which appointments to public bodies should be made.

The message in this Bill is that we need democratic scrutiny and oversight of the process of appointments to public bodies. It was recognised by the Green Party Members in their speeches in March 2007. The current Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, referred to the Democracy Commission's recommendations at that time and called for reform. He stated other parties should support his Bill. I renew that call and say to Fianna Fáil and the Green Party that they should be supporting it. We all agree it is necessary and we can all sign up to it. It is a bit like motherhood and apple pie; it is very hard to see how one could vote against a Bill that calls for the scrutiny of appointments to approximately 900 public bodies. The legislation is long overdue and is really worthy of cross-party support.