Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are teasing this out. Another issue I am interested in is the new statutory board to address potential conflicts of interest of public officials who take up roles in the private sector by merging with the outside appointments board. What about people who leave the public service and move into areas where there is a potential conflict of interest? I am probably unique in the Oireachtas in that I do not have the same problem with this as other Oireachtas Members who think it is fashionable to have the view that public servants should be subject to a quarantine period. I can think of in the national interest senior officials in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation or the IDA or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine going to work for large Irish multinationals that export all over the world. That would be good for Ireland and that is good for business and employment. Somebody might say: "You worked in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; you should have nothing to do with our biggest agricultural exporter for a quarantine period." There should be a mechanism to make a business case that would set aside a lazy quarantine period. Some members of this committee think there should be a two-year quarantine but Ireland is losing valuable resources. I favour secondment between the public and private sectors rather than continuing to draw demarcation lines. The public sector is good and the private sector is bad and if people work in the public service, they should not contaminate themselves by going into the private sector for 12 months. That is lazy thinking and Mr. Beausang can call me what he likes for having that view but a mechanism is needed whereby senior people who can help Irish business are not excluded from contributing just because they worked in the public service.