Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the two public interest directors and thank them for their presentations. I have some considerable sympathy for them and those public interest directors before us already. They took on the role at a time when it was clear the banks were in a very difficult position. Both Dr. Somers and Mr. Spring have considerable reputations, as indeed do the other bank public interest directors. There was a bigger risk to their reputations if matters had not worked out. Much of this is lost in an effort to highlight the difficulties that exist with their terms of reference which I would contend are not of their making. They are doing the job that was set out for them at the time. From my vantage point, I believe they are doing it to the best of their abilities.

In the context of the Oireachtas providing advice to the Minister for Finance at a later stage, how would Dr. Somers and Mr. Spring build on the role of a public interest director? As they are the pioneers in this role, how would they define and develop the role so that the next group who takes on this onerous task can discharge their duties to the State? How would they develop a broader and more comprehensive set of guidelines that would not necessitate future public interest directors having to justify everything they do before a committee or the media? How does a public interest director balance fiduciary duties in line with company law and the obligation to the taxpayer, the main shareholder of AIB?