Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms Burke is correct. We hear that the guidelines are being finalised. At first no environmental impact assessment of the policy was done because the Department did not know it should do that. That set back progress by a year. The EPA raised some other issues last year which the Department should have foreseen and that set things back another year. The technical information the EPA provided will probably be out of date by the time the Department issues its plan.

I have a few questions about the board. The EPA had 48 board meetings. This board is unusual compared with the ones that are often before this committee because it is an executive board, a bit like An Bord Pleanála or some of the regulators. There are not external people who come in to tell the experts what they should be doing once a month. That is fine and I understand the reasons for that. The board had 35 technical meetings which I presume cover in-house, routine business. Ms Burke might give me an update on changes on the board. I presume she got a second seven-year term as director general?