Shane Ross (Independent)

I agree with Senators Coffey, Donohoe and O'Toole. It is imperative that we have a debate on the DDDA now. The DDDA situation stinks to high heaven. It is quite obvious that what was going on in there was completely unacceptable. What we do not know is the facts. There is political accountability for what happened in the DDDA because the Government appointed the chairman and the board. I want the Ministers involved, who all are still Ministers, to come to the House and explain why they appointed Mr. Jim Lacey, Mr. Seán FitzPatrick and Mr. Lar Bradshaw and what qualifications these people had. These people are involved in very serious controversies and it is perfectly legitimate for us to ask the Ministers to explain the qualifications these people had for sitting on such an extraordinarily sensitive board. I am not drawing any conclusions from that one way or the other, and there is no innuendo in what I am saying, but we must have Ministers explaining these appointments because State boards in this country are an absolute scandal.

I would be interested in what the Deputy Leader has to say because he had a noble record on this issue when he was in Opposition which, unfortunately, he appears to have sacrificed now he is in Government. I would like him to give Members a commitment that he will ask those Ministers. Ministers and not just the persons themselves should be accountable for this. We always say let us have them in before an Oireachtas committee explaining themselves, but the guys who make the appointments should give us the explanations and the appointees' qualifications. Some of these appointments are nakedly politically and the only reason they are appointed is because they are supporters of various political parties.