I welcome the tabling of the Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013. Will it be completed over the next few weeks? It is important legislation and, therefore, I am wondering whether the Leader knows the timeline for its passage.

Most of us agree the appointment of Mr. John McNulty, the Government's Seanad by-election candidate, to IMMA, which was debated yesterday, is a grubby little affair. There was no mention of this when I visited IMMA's website earlier.

This is not relevant to the Order of Business.

It is because appointments to State boards was the subject of a firm commitment by Fine Gael prior to the 2011 general election. The party stated it would do things differently. It rightly criticised previous Governments in respect of how appointments were made. Since 2011, Fine Gael has used State boards as personal fiefdoms or waiting rooms for party hacks and supporters in every area. I commend my colleague, Senator Byrne,on raising this matter yesterday. I am worried that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht did not answer any of the specific questions that were put to her when we debated the issue last evening. If Mr. McNulty did not apply to join the board, who gave the direction for him to be put on the board of IMMA? Is the Leader aware that, in 2010, the composition of the such boards was restricted to nine members? However, the Government has appointed two additional members and increased the number to 11. Was the chairperson, Mr. Eoin McGonigal, consulted about this? Who made the application and who gave the direction?

Mr. Curran, the secretary general of Fine Gael.

Senator O'Brien, without interruption.

Fine Gael may treat State boards like it owns them. This board, in particular, is important. IMMA's mission statement says: "The members of the board and the chairperson are artists and other people with an active interest and expertise in modern and contemporary art. They are appointed in their capacity as individuals."

This Senator did not complete the statement; he only read part of it.

I can read the entire statement into the record if the Leader gives me time.

Is the Senator seeking a debate on this issue?

I will get to that.

The Senator is running out of time.

Who gave the direction to appoint the Government's Seanad by-election candidate to the board? I commend Senator Bacik on having the guts yesterday to stand up and say this is effectively wrong. The Seanad by-election is coming up shortly and my Labour Party colleagues in the Oireachtas can make a decision as to whether this is wrong by not voting for this individual. I am sure the Taoiseach was gravely disappointed again yesterday that the Seanad was not abolished.

Has the Senator a question for the Leader?

I have asked many questions. This appointment and many others prove that the manner in which individuals have been appointed to State boards by this and previous Governments has been wrong and we still have not got a handle on this. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht did not answer any specific questions yesterday evening. She did not answer how this individual got on the board or why he is on it. We know the reason is to put belts and braces on his candidacy for the Seanad by-election because his own candidacy does not stack up.

The Senator is way over time.

The guy has been appointed for three weeks in order that he get elected to the House with all the Government Members voting for him. Because the Minister did not answer questions directly, I propose amendment to the Order of Business: "That the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht come to the House and answer the specific questions she was asked yesterday, which she did not answer". Who gave the direction for this individual to be appointed to the board of IMMA? I understand from reading media reports this morning that a discussion on this took place in the Fine Gael party rooms and involved people like Tom Curran and Mark Kenneally who decided that-----

The Senator can make these points during the debate he is looking for.

I will. Perhaps if the Leader has answers to these questions, we will not have to drag the Minister in here again today. This is serious. I formally propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister come to the House to address these questions once and for all and give the answers people are seeking. She did not use the opportunity yesterday to answer any specific questions.

Senator O'Brien has raised a number of valid points but some of his contribution was pure speculation at the end of the day. There is a wider issue regarding the governance of State bodies, which is the subject of a code of conduct. I am glad the Senator acknowledged a great deal of board fixing went on under previous Governments and I could name boards to which this happened. There is an openness and transparency issue regarding how people are appointed to State boards. There is supposed to be a skills matrix on which appointments are based but the appropriate forum for the debate the Senator is seeking is the joint committee with responsibility for IMMA's governance.

He has been appointed.

Senator Hayden, without interruption.

A proper list of questions should be prepared by the committee and given to the IMMA board and these should be answered in the normal course. There is nothing to be gained by dragging the Minister into the House one more time to seek answers to questions that are better answered at the joint committee with responsibility for IMMA.

Last weekend, Mr. Shay Cody, the general secretary of IMPACT put out a call for rent controls to be introduced, equating it to controls that were put in place by previous Governments on the price of a pint, which was an interesting observation.

SIPTU has also agreed to support rent controls. I have raised this issue previously and do so again because it is a matter of great urgency which merits a serious debate. Some 2,400 people, all of whom are unique cases, presented as homeless in the Dublin region in the second quarter of this year. We are in a major crisis.

I was disappointed with the response of the Irish Property Owners Association to IMPACT's call. It stated interference in the market, including the decision to eliminate bedsit accommodation, was the reason for the increase in the numbers of people presenting as homeless. I do not know if the IPOA is aware that the vast majority of the bedsit units that were closed down were firetraps which were no better than slum accommodation. If the association's attitude to the homeless is to suggest they be placed in such accommodation, it is an absolute disgrace.

I welcome the call made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, that €250 million be allocated immediately towards the construction of social housing. While we all know such a sum would make little difference in dealing with the problem, it would cross the Rubicon in terms of the destruction of the construction sector and the economy. We need to debate ways in which local authorities can be facilitated to borrow money off balance sheet in order that they can again provide some level of social housing accommodation. I suggest €1 billion will be required in each of the next five to ten years if we are to make inroads into addressing the problem of social housing.