asked the Minister for Finance whether a knowledge of Irish is necessary in the case of the appointments to the Boards of State or semi-State bodies; and, if so, by what method the competency of appointees in this respect is determined.

Inquiries are being made as to the position and, if the Deputy repeats the question in two weeks' time, the information sought will be available.

Is it not true that a competent knowledge of Irish is not necessary and that the Minister himself removed Gerry Jones from a board while he had Irish and that the Minister appointed a man who has not a word of Irish to that board? Is it not true that the real criterion by which the Minister judges candidates at present is whether they are good subscribers to the Fianna Fáil Party. The moment they deviate one iota they are removed.

Deputy L'Estrange knows how untrue that is.

It is not. This is a case of low standards in high places.

Deputy L'Estrange imagines other people operate on the same basis as his party operated when they were in power but there are other standards.

The Minister is the man who talked about low standards in high places.

There are other standards, I am glad to say.

There were standards before the Minister's Government came into office but, unfortunately, there are very low ones now.

We saw the performance of Fine Gael when they were in office.

We even appointed the Local Appointments Commission to ensure that everybody would have an equal chance.