Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is only one county. Those figures come from the CSO. It is not a good statistic. I am not making a political point but I am expressing the reality. Rural Ireland is struggling. The economic recovery that we see is predominantly in the capital and in the interurban areas. The focus of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland has been job creation in urban areas, not in rural areas. Yes, there have been opportunities and jobs have been created in rural areas but they have been created because people have been willing to take a risk themselves, not through the intervention of any Government policy.

The issue of the insolvency legislation was raised by Senator Aideen Hayden who said it is not working. The reason it is not working is that the banks have a veto over the insolvency legislation because the banks through rent seeking behaviour were allowed to write the insolvency legislation which was supported by Government in these Houses. It is not protecting the ordinary consumer who is in debt, negative equity or personal debt.

The other issue that is emerging and was debated in the other House last night is that of State board appointments. It is not unique to Labour Party leaders that they are being appointed or reappointed to State boards. State boards are being stuffed in the last days of this Government with people who are aligned to Government parties. That is wrong. Yes, it happened under Fianna Fáil. It was wrong then and it is wrong now because State boards should be filled with people who have some level of expertise in corporate governance. I refer in particular to one State board, the Irish Greyhound Board, which is in receipt of almost €15 million from the State, or €285,000 per year. Its corporate governance failings have been highlighted in an Indecon report published by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. One of the recommendations in that report was that those who serve on the board should not do so for any more than two terms. The Minister of State at the Department, Deputy Tom Hayes, has reappointed a crony for a third term on that board who does not have the expertise set out in the Indecon report.