Shane Ross (Independent)

The Government has never lost its knack of appointing its friends to State boards. When it nationalised Anglo Irish Bank, it appointed Mr. Aidan Eames, a fund-raiser, to the board. The situation was far too serious for such individuals to be appointed to boards and for Fianna Fáil to appoint ex-Ministers, able though they might have been. It should have appointed individuals without a political pedigree, but it could not and still cannot do this. It appoints its friends all the time to sit on boards of vital national importance because it has utter contempt for these institutions. It regards them as its own, to be used for the benefit of the party.

I wrote in my book that I had spoken to a Cabinet Minister who told me that when he was sitting at the Cabinet table, Deputy Bertie Ahern who was Taoiseach at the time knew far more about what was happening on the boards of semi-State bodies than the Minister did, although semi-State bodies were the responsibility of his Department. The individuals appointed to the boards were of the view that they were answerable to the Taoiseach of the day and kept in touch with him, not with the Minister, because they were designated, loyal party people. That continues in this country. What did the Government do when it discovered the enormous waste and learned about the abuse of power on the board of FÁS? Instead of appointing the people who were there automatically, it reverted to the old system of political appointments. That is what it did and still does.

This is partly the reason the nation is in this position because cronyism breeds waste and enormous extravagance and leaves the nation in a state of arrogance, intolerance and profligacy. That is what happened in CIE. I have mentioned it here before because the Leader of the House would not allow a debate on CIE. Not only was there the appointment of cronies, although that did take place, there was also a refusal by Government Members to allow them to come before an Oireachtas committee to give evidence. The Fianna Fáil Party voted not to allow them to give evidence. What is that? It is cronyism. It is protecting one's cronies and subverting democracy. I do not believe any Government which behaves in that way deserves to remain in office. That amounts to a single party State protecting its own and running the country not for the benefit of the nation but for itself. What sort of legacy will Fianna Fáil leave when it departs office this time? It will leave a nation and an economy a good deal worse off than when it came in. It will leave with unemployment high and a nation almost bankrupt. Yet it is telling us today that exports are better and that the public service is in a good state. It will leave the nation in a state of almost total and utter penury.