Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is another example. We established that we do not know whether it is solvent. We established that in an ideal world we would like all of the report's results before we move forward with substantive change. Now we have confusion over the new people. Theoretically, from my reading of the rules, they will not even be eligible to be on the board until the next AGM so it is a bit on the never-never.

Another point is that the corporate governance report clearly provides for a list to be drawn up by an external recruitment firm but this is not reflected in the rules. This is what the report says but it is not reflected in the rules. Instead, a nominations committee, comprising mainly of members of the board, will select the independent directors, including the chairperson. In effect, this gives complete control to the board for the selection of the independent directors. It is a derivative of Einstein's comment that to keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome is insanity.