Ms Derville Rowland:

I am happy to answer the question. I thought I should be fair to my colleague, who has well-developed and particular views on the matter, and allow the two of us to discuss some of the matters with the Senator. I am happy to answer the question. It is important that the skills and capabilities of individuals are looked at when they join a board. It is an onerous job and it is important that they discharge it well. There is a specific set of roles and expectations of role holders on boards and, on top of that, I also referenced the need for a firm to be governed well, with appropriate decision-making and with well-developed risk and compliance frameworks commensurate with the complexity of the business. There is a need for effective and sustainable business models. Firms need to ensure proper standards of risk governance, particularly with investor protection. One can see how impactful and wrong the lack of risk management frameworks, proper conflicts of interest management and controls over staff dealing has been in instances such as the Davy case.

Another dimension to the composition of a board is the balance, composition and skill sets of the aggregate group. I know that if Mr. Sibley's IT was working better at the moment, he would want me to make the point that the Central Bank of Ireland this week issued data on the diversity in the composition of role holders in financial services. We have not made the kind of progress that we need to make. One could look at the Davy case or a number of other instances in Irish financial services and make a cultural comment that we are dealing with groupthink because there is not a sufficient diversity of skills, experience, attitude, gender, ethnicity, educational background and socioeconomic background on the boards. People from different echelons of society with different experiences and educational insights can bring a wide, diverse and challenging set of views to a board. That would strengthen the governance, decision-making and oversight so that a business is run to the standards expected with competence and capability but also with diversity of thought. That would mean no cosy groups who are not challenged by diverse compositions of people with the right skill sets. I hope that gives the Senator some considerations in reply to his question.