Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I would like to expand on some of the remarks ventilated in the past few minutes in regard, in particular, to the role of politics. The rush to appoint a business leader to sort us out reflects a yearning for two things - decisiveness and expertise - but should there ever be such a move, we would be throwing the baby out with the bath water because not only do we need decisiveness and expertise, we also need political acumen, judgment and skill to work our way through this crisis. I think back, for instance, to interventions made by businessmen during the Lisbon treaty debate which, at times, were painfully crude. I wonder how successful they would be and whether they have the skills set to do what is needed.

We have to find a way to inject greater expertise into the political system. The balance between the public service and politicians should be examined. Politicians are elected by the people and are almost, by definition, generalists; they need a Civil Service crammed with expertise in Departments. However, the expertise that ought to counterbalance the general representative role of politicians is not available, in particular to the Department of Finance at this critical time. It is welcome that we have in the front row Messrs Honohan, Elderfield and Corrigan who bring expertise to the ongoing negotiations. I dread to think what might have happened without that set of recent appointments.

Another way to address this issue is through the list system, whereby the electorate would vote for parties which would then appoint experts in particular disciplines to the Houses of the Oireachtas, not individuals. It is time to give consideration to the introduction of a list system in how we make our political choices.