I feel a certain sense of déjà vu. I think I am listening to the same speeches from the Opposition that I heard yesterday and last Thursday and I will probably hear the same speeches tomorrow.

Not from me, I was not here yesterday.

The Senator will, unless we get the Taoiseach to attend the House.

There is a certain amount of amnesia on the other side and it is important to note some of the positives that have come from this unfortunate incident, particularly the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, on the manner in which future State board members will be appointed.

The Government was forced into it.

It is a very important development which is most welcome and for which I have called in this House.

What about the Labour Party press officer on the Heritage Council?

In the long run, State boards will be the better as a result of this debacle. It is disingenuous of Fianna Fáil to throw muck about the appointment of people to State boards. Many of us on this side of the House could point to appointments to State boards made by Fianna Fáil.

As Senator Sean D. Barrett pointed out, we seem to be in recovery regarding the housing market, as recent fiscal figures demonstrate. Again, I felt a certain sense of déjà vu when I heard the statements from the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, on our need to abandon Part V of the Planning and Development Act as soon as possible. The CIF proposes a 1% levy on all property purchases, to which I have no objection in principle as long as it assists people in need of social housing. However, the president of the CIF described Part V as a "boom-time tax". Let us be clear that it was a tax that was not paid. I did an analysis that showed 45,000 extra units would have been built for social and affordable housing had the previous Government enforced Part V. It did not, and as a result we have 26,000 fewer social housing units and I hazard a guess that with 26,000 additional social housing units, we would not be facing the homelessness crisis we do. Sometimes déjà vu is exactly that, same old, same old.

I attended the MacGill Summer School in Glenties this summer where we discussed the political culture in this country and how until it changes there will be no change. If one examines the appointment of Mr. McNulty to the board of IMMA, the appointment of Mr. Quinlivan to the board of Irish Water and subsequently as a driver to a Minister of State, what strikes me is that the people concerned saw nothing wrong with it. There is a mix-up in their understanding of governance, particularly in the situation with Mr. Quinlivan. The culture is rotten. Will the Leader ask each Minister to produce a list of all their board appointments and who recommended each one? I realise there have been different practices and some have been through advertisements, but some have been through recommendations. We need a clean sheet. While I accept what the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin said, we need an end to this, so let us have it all out and get it over with. I would like the Leader to respond to my request.

Yesterday, I said 10 October will be a test for the Government. Some people have voted for Mr. McNulty, even though he has said he does not want people to vote for him and he is withdrawing. If he wins, and the election is declared invalid, and Fine Gael then produces a candidate who can win, it will also look very bad. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said Fine Gael’s behaviour showed it was not worthy of winning the seat. He should remember these words.

I very much welcome yesterday’s Cabinet decision regarding the Public Appointments Service and the advertising of expressions of interest regarding all further appointments, and particularly the announcement that within six weeks the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, will present to the Government for approval an overarching set of guidelines for appointments of State boards. These guidelines will set out requirements which will be expected to apply to all State board appointments in terms of the calibre and quality of candidates and broader public policy considerations relating to general equality and other diversity objectives. The McNulty affair is over. We should await this.

It is not.

Maybe my understanding of English and the statements by Mr. McNulty, the Taoiseach and others is different from Senator MacSharry's. We can debate these matters, but let us await the Government's approval of the guidelines and then Senators can have more details and, perhaps, more to get their teeth into.

We want answers from the Taoiseach.