Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator O'Donovan raised the John McNulty saga and confessed to eavesdropping and listening in corridors after the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting. I have no comment on his eavesdropping skills but my view on this issue has been expressed consistently on the record on a number of occasions. I have serious concerns about the manner and timing of the appointment of Mr. McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA, but things have moved on. Mr. McNulty has indicated he does not want people to vote for him and the Taoiseach has advised Fine Gael members not to do so and to respect Mr. McNulty's wishes. We will have to consider how we vote, in accordance with the secret ballot, and I know the Clerk of the Seanad has sent instruction on this to all Senators. In the circumstances I will not accede to the amendment sought by Senator O'Donovan.
Yesterday I asked the Leader for a debate on the new mechanisms announced by the Minster, Deputy Howlin, which received Cabinet approval this week. It is historic that the Government has now agreed to a revised model for ministerial appointments to State boards that will resolve this ongoing issue at last. As Senator Mooney very fairly acknowledged, it has been an issue that has affected many Governments. This week's decision ensures there will be a structured approach requiring that all appointments to vacancies on State boards must be advertised openly on the State boards portal, stateboards.ie, operated by the Public Appointments Service. There will be specified and detailed criteria for the effective performance of a role and these may be determined by a Minister, if necessary. Applications will be processed through a transparent assessment system designed and implemented by the independent Public Appointments Service.
I welcome these changes and some colleagues gave examples of existing good practice whereby different committees scrutinised appointments and made them in a transparent and objective manner. The Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality scrutinised the membership of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and we found it a very useful exercise. I hope there will be more of this as it is clear there will be a very different system in all Government appointments.
Senator Paul Coghlan commented on the flogging of a dead horse and referred to the new planning Bill that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, is publishing today. It is an important Bill that will make significant changes and improvements to the planning regime, particularly by allowing for the imposition of vacant site levies by local authorities, which will free land for building. The focus the Bill is allowing the construction of housing at a swifter rate than heretofore.
Senator Barrett referred to the decline in Irish university rankings evidenced in the publication of The Timeshigher education rankings. As others said, like opinion polls, these rankings always come with a health warning. There are questions about the criteria used and different ranking systems use different criteria. The staff-student ratio is only one criterion as is the area of academic citation.

Everybody who contributed on this did so in a measured fashion, which is appropriate. While UCD has, unfortunately, fallen in the rankings it is still among the top 200. Also, it is not true to say there have been dramatic or consistent falls in respect of other institutions. For example, Trinity College, which was already out of the top 100 has fallen from 129th to 138th in today's ranking, which, while regrettable, is a relatively small fall. If it was an opinion poll it would be said that it was within the margin of error. It is important to say that NUI Galway has moved upwards and is now the third ranked university in Ireland. Also, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland has for the first time entered the top 400. It should not be forgotten that there are more than 15,000 universities represented in the rankings. It is important to bear all this in mind when commenting.

I am happy to support the call by Senator Sean Barrett that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, be asked to come to the House for a debate on the third level sector generally and the many factors that dictate the ranking and status of different universities. This is not just an issue of resources but the structure of universities and the systems in place and so on.

Senator Mullins referred to Fianna Fáil's history in terms of the filling of board positions with its supporters. The figures, in terms of Fianna Fáil's approximately 272 appointments to State boards during its final four months in government from December 2010 to March 2011, speak for themselves. That is an important figure.