Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened with interest to the debate yesterday evening with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Humphreys. The Minister deserves credit for making herself available to this House, and I thank her for that, but there are always ways of improving matters. Senator Mooney's suggestion merits serious consideration. If an Oireachtas committee felt it necessary to call an appointee to a State board to come before it, as happens currently for chairpersons designate, I do not see much wrong with that process. It may be impractical to call every appointee to every State board before an Oireachtas committee, but there is nothing wrong with the suggestion that certain individuals should appear before an Oireachtas committee to give an account of their qualifications to steward on a board. The Leader might raise that with the appropriate authorities in due course.

I support my colleague Senator Hildegarde Naughton on the issue of gazumping. Gazumping was one of the most disgusting elements of our Celtic tiger period. It was certainly one of the most vulgar, and it should be outlawed, as it is in many other countries. Gazumping appears to be unique to Ireland. It does not happen in the United States or in the majority of European countries, and it should not happen here. It was one of the lessons we did not learn from the Celtic tiger period, and as yet we have not legislated to make gazumping illegal. I call on the Leader to request the Minister with responsibility for housing to come to the House for a discussion on gazumping with a view to assisting in the crafting of legislation to ensure unfortunate people struggling to purchase homes do not find themselves having to pay out an extra €10,000, €20,000 or, in some cases, tens of thousands of euro to greedy people.