Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It is important that we scrutinise whom we appoint to boards such as the Property Services Regulation Authority. Real problems have arisen within Fianna Fáil because apparently it saw nothing wrong with appointing cronies and buddies to boards. We need to move away from that practice.

As the Minister will be aware, the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights established a sub-committee on the participation of women in politics, for which Senator McDonald and I produced a report. One of our recommendations was the establishment of a national talent bank of women willing to be appointed to State boards. This would allow Ministers to draw from a longer list of names and mean we would no longer hear the mantra that not enough women's names were being put forward, although I accept that such a failure can be the fault of nominating groups and that is not always the responsibility of the Minister. A talent bank which has been introduced in Norway and elsewhere would expand the list of women and increase awareness of the large number of talented and able women who could make excellent appointees.

The Minister erroneously suggested I had advocated the inclusion of a specific consumer group in the legislation. I merely provided examples of the groups from which the Minister might make appointments. An appropriate amendment which I may table on Report Stage would provide that at least "three nominees shall be persons who in the opinion of the Minister are representatives of groups advocating the rights of the consumer". By leaving the provision vague, we would get around the problem of being overly prescriptive, while ensuring that at least three members of the board represented the consumer in some way.