Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Senator MacSharry's point, the Taoiseach raised his hands yesterday and said he got it wrong. I did not hear the Fianna Fáil leader admit he got it wrong by not putting forward a Fianna Fáil candidate for the Seanad election. There were calls for the Taoiseach to come before this House to account for himself. Senator O'Donovan mentioned the Constitution and under the Constitution the Government is responsible to Dáil Éireann, although I hate to point this out. The Taoiseach explained the situation to the other House yesterday and put his hands up, which is not something many former taoisigh have done.

Regarding State boards, the Taoiseach was wrong in this case but I point out to Senator MacSharry that when Fianna Fáil was voted out of office, it stuffed more than 300 people onto State boards before the new Government took office. Fianna Fáil made people chairmen of institutes of technology and various other bodies during the aforementioned interregnum - this should not be forgotten and I will not let the Senators forget.