Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to extend my congratulations to the Minister on her new appointment to arts, culture, the islands, heritage and whatever else. I appreciate her coming here. She has been very open, honest, clear and concise in what she has said.

When I think of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, I personally would not like to appointed to the board because I do not truck with modern art. I am not really interested in reclining parallelograms, spots in walls, black canvasses and twisted iron. I am more inclined towards great art like that created by Senator Mac Conghail's grandfather and others such as Osbourne, Lavery, Keating, Paul Henry and similar artists. It would not be a great appointment for me. I do not think that I am saying something ignorant. To me modern art has no explanation and at times we have hundreds and thousands of psychologists, sociologists and culturally aware people trying to explain it. When one has to explain things one is losing, as we know.

There is nothing like an honest explanation which is what we had here from the Minister. I take it as honest and thank her. She is a Minister and is, therefore, allowed to make appointments. We might not like them, certainly Fianna Fáil does not like it and Senator Thomas Byrne does not like it but she does not have to answer to Fianna Fáil or to the Senator. Fianna Fáil gave answers here for 12 years and look where it got us.