SEANAD REPORT:THERE SEEMED to be a hidden hand at the top of the Civil Service in the Department of Finance that could "slip people through" pay restrictions, Shane Ross (Ind) said. They had heard a lot about the pay rises in Anglo Irish Bank.

"There appears to be a kind of elite at the top of the public service which can break the public service freeze or reductions in pay. We have had not just Anglo Irish, we have had the higher civil servants, about 600 of them, and something which was missed because we were in recess last week, the guys at the top of Nama. Frank Daly, the chairman, is getting a 70 per cent increase. I can't believe it - slipped through when everybody was in recess. The other directors are getting up to 30 per cent. This is crazy."

There was political accountability for what had happened in the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), because governments of the day had appointed the chairman and the board, Mr Ross contended. He would like to hear the Ministers involved explain to the Oireachtas why they had appointed Jim Lacey, Sean FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw. These people were involved in very serious controversies "and it is perfectly legitimate for us to ask the Ministers to explain the qualifications these people had for sitting on such an extraordinarily sensitive board. I am not drawing any conclusions from that, one way or the other, and there is no innuendo in what I am saying. But I am saying that we must have Ministers explaining these appointments, because State boards in this country are an absolute scandal."

Jerry Buttimer (FG) said the DDDA had been the epitome of Fianna Fáil cronyism.

Ivana Bacik (Lab) said she joined with others in calling for a debate on the very disturbing reports concerning the DDDA. "There are certainly parallels, I think, with the rotten borough that was Fás."

Acting Seanad leader Dan Boyle said there would be a debate on the combined reports following their publication, which was likely to be next month. He expected that the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government would be very forthcoming. "I am led to believe that there are no specific political references, but the wider political issues involved are a matter of debate in this House."

Former SR Technics workers did not deserve the scandalous treatment being meted out to them, Brendan Ryan (Lab) said. If the Government was serious about assisting this group of skilled people it must come clean on the reason for the delays in progressing the application to enable them to avail of the EU Globalisation Fund, he said.