Much has been ventilated over the past 48 hours about the appointment of Mr. John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I concur with those who suggest that appointees to all public boards should be subject to scrutiny by the appropriate Oireachtas committee.

Hear, hear.

It would be easy to do. Alternatively, a select committee of the Seanad could scrutinise them. Some mechanism should be introduced to deal with it. Recently I saw the Leader at his committee which was interviewing the chairman designate of the Port of Waterford. The chairman designate acquitted himself well and the process was good, and it should be extended to all boards. Given the importance of our public boards and the deficiencies which have been identified in many of them in recent years, it is imperative that people of the highest calibre who can make a contribution and have influence on boards are appointed.

The second issue I raise goes to the core of the undermining of our democracy, namely, the public cynicism which can only be fuelled when the Government appoints a person to a board whom it knows will, within weeks, be ineligible to serve on the board. It is an abuse of the process of appointing people and goes against all best practices of our democracy. It is no wonder people are disillusioned with politicians and the public service. There is no good reason why a by-election to the Seanad should be confined to a small portion of the electorate which is controlled by the Government, and we should take this matter up. Why would we not allow the full Seanad electorate to participate in deciding who will fill the position in Seanad Éireann?

Like any other election.

It can be done very easily, as the vote is done by post.

While the Government is diverting our attention to these peripheral matters, parents who are trying to get their children who have special needs into pre-school and school where they can enhance their prospects of playing a meaningful part in their lives and development, are not being supported as they should be. Everybody recognises that early intervention is essential in all these cases. There should be more support from the HSE for certain bodies. Resources are being curtailed, but these should be priorities. I ask the Leader to bring it to the Minister’s attention and arrange an early debate to focus on these important issues which affect a significant proportion of people who are doing their best in difficult circumstances to ensure their children are given a better opportunity in life. We should support it.