Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----following which 129 applicants where whittled down to eight. It is important that this House gives credit to good practice regardless of by whom it was instituted or which committee engages in it. The media does not pay enough attention to the many Ministers who have been utilising this open and transparent system of State board appointments.

Senator Brennan also expressed the hope that the planning Bill would come before this House soon and called on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come to the House to address the unauthorised developments issue. The Minister will be before the House on the planning Bill at which time issues such as the vacant site levy and Part V social housing issues can be addressed.

Senator Norris also spoke about the university rankings. I agree with his comments in regard to the need for careful examination of the criteria being used in that regard. It is also important to say that in Ireland there have been positive increases in recent years in the numbers of students attending third level education. Ireland has one of the highest proportions of third level graduates across the EU, which is something of which we should be very proud. Our universities are doing a very good job in terms of raising educational standards in Ireland generally. When looking at criteria across other countries, it should be remembered that other countries may have much lower levels of participation in third level than is the case in Ireland. We have also seen considerable success here in terms of the roll-out of campus companies from different universities through good use of philanthropy and philanthropic funding.

Senator Conway welcomed the new structures in regard to appointments to State boards as positive politics, with which I agree. He also put forward important ideas in relation to how we deal with accidents on farms and address the issue of farm safety generally. The Senator also called for the Seanad to play a role in this regard and for the Seanad Public Consultation Committee in particular to take it on as its next topic for consultation, which I believe is a good idea. I would advise the Senator to communicate with the Cathaoirleach on the matter and I will undertake to raise it at the next meeting of the Public Consultation Committee that this be the next issue it addresses. I agree it is an appropriate forum to try to come up with ideas for the better dissemination of the message on farm safety. The Health and Safety Authority advertising in this regard is very powerful, but clearly more needs to be done.

Senator Wilson spoke about the McNulty affair and wilfully misquoted Senator Paul Coghlan on the issue of the dead horse, which I do not propose to go over again.