Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has stated we now have a policy on the appointment of board members. She has given an indication that she is fully committed to using the public appointments process in the future in line with current Government guidelines. Last week the Government agreed to a revised model for ministerial appointments to State boards. The new requirements provide us with a more credible, transparent and robust appointments system and model which will ensure appointees are populated by the high calibre personnel required to successfully discharge the challenging and demanding mandates. I have asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to come to the Chamber to address Members on the issue of transparency and the new model for making appointments. I hope he will come to the House in early course to address the matter.

We agree on the independence of the arts, which is why we devised the model. We will deliver for the arts. I acknowledge the amount of money provided, €1.1 billion, in the six years of Fianna Fáil's tenure. I am sure every cent was spent well, but, as my colleague pointed out, €580 million has been put into the arts in the past three years by the Government, this at a time when, as the Minister pointed out, cuts were necessitated because of economic mismanagement by Fianna Fáil which resulted in the country having to access emergency funding from the troika and the collapse of the banking system. That is the legacy of Fianna Fáil. However, some good things were done in the arts. After listening to her, I am confident that the Minister is competent, capable and worthy and someone who will fight for the arts. We will support her in obtaining funding and not play politics in the way Fianna Fáil has tried to do in the motion.