Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Deputy Leader to organise a debate on appointments to State boards. At the same time, she might call for a moratorium on such appointments. Of the 1,300 appointments made by the Government, only 28% of the positions were filled after being publicly advertised, despite the Government's continued promises in the run-up to the general election that there would be openness and transparency. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, called for a moratorium in 2010, but there is a deafening silence from him now as he watches his fellow Cabinet members breaking their own promise of transparency in appointments to State boards.

Another promise broken by the Government concerns the deaf community. The Government stated it would allocate resources to members of the disabled and deaf community and examine mechanisms to provide for the recognition of Irish Sign Language, yet the funding allocated, in particular for the advocacy service, was cut. I know an apology has since issued in which the people concerned were asked to call the Department, but that is the equivalent of telling a person who is illiterate to write a letter. This shows why the funding needs to be reinstated because it is the advocacy service of the people concerned and it deals with Departments on behalf of the most vulnerable and those who find it most difficult to communicate with them.

I also seek a debate on the matter raised by Senator Darragh O'Brien yesterday concerning the 1916 Rising. When Henry Grattan talked about an Irish Parliament up to 1800, he lambasted those who were satisfied with the granting of economic opportunity. He talked about an independent and free parliament. We have a former Taoiseach who seemed to be quite happy with Home Rule and was a great admirer of John Redmond. Let me remind colleagues what Home Rule would have brought. It would not have brought control of our own foreign policy which would have remained with Westminster, rather it would have bought limited powers of taxation, with 42 MPs still sitting at Westminster.