Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important that the board meets formally. Where there is a difference of view, it is even more important that it gets aired at board level. Mr. Keeling obviously inherited difficulties when he took on the role of chairperson but he indicated that he took the view that in his judgment, the incumbent CEO was the best person for the job. He also said that because of that, he felt there was no point in going to the board to discuss it with its members. Mr. Keeling may have been having informal discussions but he did say he felt there was no point in going to the board to discuss it with the members and that it would be a waste of time and money to re-interview for the job, because he was convinced that Mr. Kavanagh was going to be the best person for the job. Will Mr. Keeling elaborate more on that? There obviously were things that were very wrong with the way the board dealt with this process. That is why we are here today. In order to have confidence in the governance of HRI, it needs to be absolutely clear that the board fully understands and accepts the problems that were there and how they were dealt with and that the committee can be fully assured the board has learnt from that and that the issues will be addressed in the future. From the responses to the questions today, that is certainly not coming across. It is not apparent that there is a full acceptance that things should have been done differently and the correct procedures followed.

Will Mr. Keeling respond to the questions I put at the outset? In respect of the initial letter to the Department, at the end of the letter Mr. Keeling's request for Mr. Kavanagh to be appointed was presented as being at the request and wishes of the board. Will he please specify why he put that across and why he believed that, because it was not the factual position of the official position of the board?