Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I would like to think that represents the beginning of a change. A further step forward is being taken using the Broadcasting Act 2009 which will enact the proposals of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, with regard to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. That legislation gives Oireachtas committees a greater role in vetting people and eventually appointing them to boards.

The latest advance, as agreed in the review of the programme for Government, is the proposal to provide for a legislative basis for public appointments. As someone who was involved in those negotiations, I have to accept that the approach being taken does not come close to what I set out as a preferred or ideal situation in the Bill I tabled in the Dáil in 2007. However, it will be the first time legislation on public appointments will be introduced by the Government and brought before the Oireachtas. The legislation will establish panels, put together in an independent fashion, from which Ministers will have to select at least half the members of the boards they are required to appoint. I suggest that the Broadcasting Act innovations introduced since the Green Party went into government, when taken with the commitments that were secured in the recent review of the programme for Government, demonstrates a small, slow and painful movement towards a legislative basis for some degree of autonomy in public appointments. I emphasise that I continue to prefer the model outlined in this Bill, which can and should be advanced. It may be possible to advance it in the lifetime of this Government, but it cannot be advanced tonight. I repeat my gratitude to those who brought it before the House tonight. We will need to adopt the important principles enshrined in the Bill at some stage in our public life. At a time when public cynicism about the profession of politics is at its height and the need to restore confidence in politics has never been so great, such principles have never been more needed.

I am sure Senator Ross, his Independent colleagues and the other Members of the House are aware that we are participating in government on the basis of the programme for Government that was originally secured in 2007 and was recently reviewed. That is the basis on which the Government in which the Green Party is participating will advance the issue of public appointments. If it is possible to push harder and further in this regard, I will be grateful for the assistance of any Member of the Oireachtas in achieving that. I emphasise that we are making more progress down that road than any other Government has chosen to make. I have heard the contributions of other Senators, who wagged their fingers and said "tut-tut" in the past when they were confronted with the undoubted abuse of public appointments by those who have been in government longest in this country. I remind the House that such abuse was carried forward with equal vigour by other parties when they subsequently found themselves in government. Senators may nod-----