Taoiseach Bertie Ahern criticised the practice of governments making appointments to State boards on the eve of a general election.
He was replying to Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, who said that in the past governments had shown a tendency to pack boards in advance of a general election.
Mr Ahern said: "I do not agree with packing boards on the eve of a general election. The practice has been that after a general election people tend to pack boards.
"I do not agree with that practice and have always tried to avoid engaging in it. My record in that regard is very good."
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte asked Mr Ahern if he had changed his policy from last year, when Mr Ahern had said he appointed people to boards because they were friends and not because of anything they had given him.
"Is there anybody in the Drumcondra retinue who has not been appointed to one agency or another?" Mr Rabbitte asked.
Mr Ahern said that it could be seen from the schedule of appointments that he had appointed to State boards more "card-carrying members of the Labour Party, who were paraded in prominent positions at that party's conferences", than residents of Drumcondra.
"There may be four or five such people from Drumcondra, but I have appointed people who write Labour Party policy documents, who parade to Deputy Rabbitte's office and constitute his advisory team."
Mr Rabbitte remarked that he had never known he had "Fianna Fáil sleepers" around him.
Mr Sargent observed: "Keep one's friends close and one's enemies closer."
Mr Ahern said that a "handful of poor people from Drumcondra are beleaguered because they have known me for 40 years, but that is how it is."
He added that regardless of the posts he had held over the years, he had not done what politicians in the House had done in the past, which was to stick people onto State boards.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny asked if Mr Ahern in his capacity as Taoiseach had to give the nod to every appointment to State boards.
"No, thank God. Some such appointments must be checked with the Taoiseach under statute, but I am afraid I read about most of them," he replied.
Mr Ahern said that he had always tried to encourage the appointment of more women, but if he made suggestions other than that on who was to be appointed, he would not get his wish.
