It is very difficult to take what Senator Denis O’Donovan said seriously and to see the Fianna Fáil Party making such a major issue of one board appointment. This is the party that was hammered in the 2011 general election, yet before it left office stuffed boards with its supporters and cronies that ran into seriously inflated numbers-----

Does the Senator have a question for the Deputy Leader?

At this stage the people want us to get back to discussing the real issues of the day, such as how we can accelerate the success of An Action Plan for Jobs. How can we get more people back to work? We all welcome the fact that the live register figures published yesterday show a further decrease in the numbers unemployed. Employment is now at its highest level since 2009. The numbers on the live register have fallen by 4% since the launch of the Government’s An Action Plan for Jobs, from 15.1% in February 2012 to 11.1% in September 2014. It is firmly on track to create the 100,000 jobs that it promised in the programme for Government. Could we invite the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, to the House in the next week or two to discuss how we can help spread employment opportunities to the regions and further help small businesses create much-needed employment in the rural communities that many in this House represent?

In the light of the number of very serious and tragic accidents on farms in recent weeks I would like to have a discussion with the Minister for Education and Skills about how to include a health and safety segment in the school curriculum in order that young people, whether living on farms or travelling our roads, can be made much more aware of the hazards associated with large, high powered equipment because tragedies such as those we have seen recently cannot be allowed to continue. Too many families have been bereaved as a result of accidents that could have been prevented.

I am sorely tempted to respond in detail to Senator Michael Mullins, but I will avoid the temptation other than to say he should Google "State appointments". A journalist yesterday said, in the context of the ongoing State appointments row, that what politicians in these Houses know but do not admit is that all Governments have done this. I will admit that all Governments have because that has been the system. It was pointed out that in the American political system, for example, the newly appointed US ambassador to Ireland, whom I welcome and wish well, following his ratification, would serve for only two years because when the Obama Administration ended all the Democrat appointees would be gone. If a Republican is elected President, Republicans will be appointed to boards. That happened in Greece during the bailout process where, I discovered, as others I am sure did, that not only are state appointments made by politicians and governments but revenue collectors are appointed by the government, which has led to enormous inefficiencies. I am not justifying this. I applaud the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, for moving very quickly yesterday to send a memorandum to the Government to the effect that appointments to State boards will go through the Commission for Public Service Appointments.

As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications I went through a process this summer, with my committee colleagues, of sifting through 140 curricula vitae sent in by members of the public, in response to an advertisement from the committee. This was to recommend four members for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and four members for the RTE Authority to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White. We interviewed all eight candidates yesterday, which was an exercise in democracy at its purest. All parties and none applauded it. I know that Senator Terry Brennan who is on the committee will agree that while the process was very difficult and burdensome because of the time it consumed over the summer, we came up with four people for each board, of whom we can feel very proud. They have come through a very pure democratic process. I have no idea what, if any, their political affiliations are, and the Senator would say the same. They are recommended on merit. I welcome that process. Perhaps now we can take this item off the agenda and focus on the economy, as Senator Michael Mullins says.

It would be churlish of me not to acknowledge the reduction in unemployment figures. That is a wonderful development. Long may it continue because it means that fewer sons and daughters, brothers and sisters will have to take a plane out of the country.