Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There was an inherent tension between these roles that was exposed or, I should say, tested on a number of occasions in that as the country moved out of a very acute crisis, there was a tension between the duties of a director to the company upon whose board they served and the wider expectations the Oireachtas, the Government and indeed the public had of anybody serving on these boards to whose job the words "public interest" were attached. There was a tension there. Even if it was not the case with the emergency legislation to which I referred, it is in the best interests of all that we are appointing so-called normal directors. I will not be appointing people who are retired Members of this House. It is not to say that I do not believe former politicians cannot perform very valuable roles but these roles must be cleared by the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Because of that, I will be taking a very careful approach with the names I put forward.