‘Give business leaders seats in Senate’

UNIVERSITY of Limerick founding president Ed Walsh has urged the Taoiseach to answer the calls for a reformed Oireachtas by filling the upcoming Seanad vacancies with leading business figures rather than seasoned politicians.

Mr Walsh – now president emeritus of UL – was addressing ISME’s annual national conference, in Dublin, yesterday. Three vacancies within the Seanad are due to be filled by the middle of next month. Mr Walsh said yesterday at least two should be senior business figures – naming the likes of Denis Brosnan, Michael O’Leary, Michael Somers and Intel Ireland general manager Jim O’Hara as possible examples.

Opening yesterday’s conference, ISME chairwoman Eilis Quinlan called for the abolition of social partnership – saying it was, in its current guise, “dead in the water”; the implementation of a National Representation Forum to drive recovery and small firms to be central to decision-making processes.