Since last week when the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, was in the House to deal with the debacle relating to the appointment of Mr. McNulty to the board of IMMA in order that he could become a Seanad by-election candidate, the situation has gotten worse. The Taoiseach said on Thursday last that he did not direct anyone, yet on Friday he said "I wouldn't say it was my finest hour and I take responsibility for this having evolved to what people might imagine it is." I am sure the Leader will agree that no one has had to use his or her imagination in trying to figure out what has gone on here. People might have had to stretch the bounds of credibility in terms of the actions of the leader of the State but no one has had to use one bit of imagination to figure out just what was going on. Yesterday we heard the Taoiseach say that he did not apply "normal Fine Gael standards" and he blamed officials in the Fine Gael party headquarters. He actually tried to differentiate between his role as Taoiseach and as leader of Fine Gael. Unfortunately this does not wash because the Taoiseach must also have forgotten his appointment of his neighbour, Darragh Loftus, to the board of SOLAS, as reported in today's Daily Mail. Obviously the same standards applied to that particular appointment. Again, not much imagination is required to figure that out.

The Taoiseach, as far as I am concerned, has still not spelled out his role in this affair. He has tried to exonerate his own office and officials in his Department, blame people in Fine Gael headquarters and shaft the poor innocent party in Donegal who was set to be a Senator but will not now be a Member of this House. We had the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in the House last week who gave an excellent display in ignoring questions. A litany of questions were put to her by Senators from all sides of the House and she answered none of them. She just blindly read from a script and kept repeating elements of it. Many of the questions posed remain unanswered.

The half-hearted statement that she made yesterday raises other questions. When did she receive the request from Fine Gael officials that Mr. McNulty wished to be appointed to the board within her remit? Why did she act with such haste in doing a banking inquiry by extending the number of board members to facilitate party cronies? Who suggested the other appointee, who is from Limerick? Was it party headquarters again or were there other reasons? The Taoiseach is blaming Fine Gael headquarters but I want to know what role his own advisers or officials played in requesting that Mr. McNulty be appointed to the IMMA board. This entire situation is incredible, bizarre and completely unacceptable. It is an affront to the entire arts community, to anybody who ever served in this House and to the people who voted, against the Taoiseach's will, to retain this House. The Taoiseach simply gave it the Harvey Smith by doing what he wanted and using it as a mere tool to facilitate political advancement for some of his own flock. Rather than answer questions to the media on one hand, or the Dáil on the other, we feel the most appropriate forum in which the Taoiseach should answer questions is in this House. For that reason, I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business that the Taoiseach come to the House today to answer questions on this issue. He has a responsibility to this House, as a democratic institution of the State, and we are entitled to answers.

The latest development in the John McNulty affair took place subsequent to my contribution on the Order of Business yesterday. It took place during our Order of Business, when the Taoiseach informed the Dáil that Mr. McNulty was requesting that people not vote for him. I outlined my own concerns about the manner of his appointment last week, when I said it was unfortunate that anything might undermine the reform process of appointments to boards which the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform had initiated. It is essential that we see proper reform and, for that reason, I welcome the announcement yesterday by the Minister of a new and revised model for ministerial appointments to State boards in order that for the first time we will see a clear process whereby all appointments to vacancies on boards will be advertised openly on the stateboards.ie portal, which is operated by the independent Public Appointments Service, PAS; vacancies will be managed through a transparent assessment system designed and implemented by the PAS; and Ministers will be supported by the service in making appointments to State boards and required to set out comprehensive criteria for the filling of vacancies.

We are aware this is not a particularly recent phenomenon. Under the previous Fianna Fáil Government there were many instances of stuffing of State boards. All of us want that process brought to an end and to ensure a clear model is put in place with transparent and objective criteria for appointments to State boards through the PAS system. For this reason, I welcome the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, and ask the Leader to arrange a debate in due course on the reform agenda he has set out. The Minister will be coming to the House tomorrow to deal with the Freedom of Information Bill 2013, and he has been in the House previously to debate several pieces of legislation. In the light of the announcement of the new process and the passage, hopefully tomorrow, of the aforementioned Bill, we should use the opportunity to debate the reform agenda generally. That would perhaps give us a context for the unfortunate issues that have arisen in the past week.

I also ask for a debate on the e-conveyancing model, which will be examined by the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. We have debated this issue previously. It is a useful model to speed up and ensure greater efficiency in the conveyancing system in Ireland. The Law Society of Ireland and others have put it forward and we will be hearing from them today and putting forward recommendations. I would like to have the opportunity to debate the issue in this House.