Once again the Government has brought the reputation of the Seanad into disrepute in the context of the appalling way in which it has dealt with the by-election relating to the seat formerly held by Ms Deirdre Clune, MEP. In the first instance, it was obliged to introduce amending legislation in order to allow the by-election to take place. Now, in an effort to impose its own candidate, it appears the Government has appointed someone to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA, with the sole purpose of qualifying that person for election to this House via the cultural and educational panel. It is time this House said "Stop" to the Government. A referendum was held one year ago and at that time the public clamoured for reform. My party's leader in the House has informed me that since the referendum - and despite promises to the contrary - there has been one meeting with the Taoiseach in respect of reforming the Seanad. The leaders of the other groups may agree with this assertion.

I have no difficulty with the Clerk of the Seanad, who always does her job in accordance with the law. However, I have a severe difficulty with a Minister making an appointment to a board if the sole purpose of doing so is to qualify a candidate for election to this House from the cultural and educational panel. The latter would be an outrageous breach of the ministerial code of conduct and I am sure the Standards in Public Office Commission will be interested in examining the circumstances involved. It would be fair to give the Minister involved an opportunity to come before the House to outline the position.

As the Senator is aware, the 1947 Act sets out all the criteria in respect of nominations to Seanad panels.

It does and, in that context, I am not querying what the Clerk did in respect of this matter. I am, however, querying what the Minister did in order to satisfy the strict legal requirements with which the Clerk must comply. It is important that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht come before the House in order to explain the recent appointment to the board of the IMMA. The latter is an extremely important institution within the State and its reputation has been brought into disrepute as a result of what happened in this instance.

Very little information has been made available in respect of this issue. However, details relating to it leaked into the public domain in the past couple of days. The appointment in question was made approximately one week ago. I presume that the person who was appointed will be elected to the House and will be obliged to resign from the board of the IMMA at that stage. That would be an outrageous abuse of the process relating to ministerial appointments. I take the opportunity to second the amendment to the Order of Business put forward by Senator Darragh O'Brien and wish to propose my own amendment to the effect that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, come before the House in order that she might explain exactly what occurred in connection with the appointment to which I refer.