Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

It is very important that I make this point. If we do not respect each other, we do not respect the mandates we have as Members of this House and we do not respect the communities and people who elect the various politicians who work very successfully and very well in this House.

I am aware of and agree with the campaign group to which Senator Keane referred, 50:50 by 2020. It is a very worthwhile organisation and I support the Senator's calls for a debate. However, I ask the Leader to extend that debate to other minority groups and to consider why minority groups as a whole are not represented in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Why has no one from the new Irish or the Traveller community been elected to either the Dáil or Seanad? Why is there only one person with a declared disability elected to the Dáil or Seanad? We need to have a debate on political participation and we need to widen it not just in regard to the quota balance between male and female but in regard to other aspects of society that are not represented at all within the political system.

I agree very much with the comments of Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell and Senator Paul Coghlan on the banks. It came to my attention recently that Mr. Declan Collier, the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority, who did not take the bonus of €102,000 on top of his salary of €600,000 or €700,000, is also a public interest director in AIB and, on top of that, a member of the remuneration committee of AIB. This is bizarre. I do not believe the public has confidence in this man to be a public interest director. Will the Leader ascertain from the Minster for Finance what moneys Mr. Declan Collier has received from AIB in terms of his remuneration for being a public interest director?