Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The weakness of our parliamentary democracy has been exposed by the abuse by Fine Gael and the Taoiseach of our institutions, namely, a State board and this House. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, came to the Chamber and I put a number of questions to her, as did others. None of the questions were answered and yesterday I wrote a letter to the Minister setting out the questions again. What obligation is on the Minister to answer these questions? This is meant to be a democracy in which we can participate and get answers. What are we here for if it does not serve that purpose? To follow up on the comments of Senator Mac Conghail, the Minister said she was in the process of drafting legislation to ensure the number of board members could be increased from nine to 11. Is the appointment of Mr. McNulty to the board of IMMA legal?