Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We had a similar process in the Department I was in previously; it was not totally dissimilar to Ms Rooney's Department. At ministerial level, a request we always made of the advisory board was in respect of all the applications that were refused. In a number of cases, the officials and I sat around the table to determine the basis for refusal. We asked the advisory board to clarify the basis for refusal because the Department or other Departments with responsibility for the sector would not have agreed with the decision by this independent board. I believe Ms Rooney. I am not one of the people who believe we have elections, elect 158 Members and then say we will give all the power to independent people, that is, people who answer to nobody. I believe they should answer to the Minister. Does they ever look for the ones that were refused? Does the Minister and his advisers ask in a rational way for the reasons for the refusals? If the Minister then believes that some of the reasons are not valid because the application was not properly evaluated does he ask them to review it or does he say that he had not thought of that issue and that he will rewrite the scheme for future applications? What is the level of engagement by the Minister? Does the Minister simply get a list of projects about which he is asked if he intends to refuse some of them? What Minister is going to turn down a project that will do some good, even if it is not a great project?