Mr. Jim Miley:

The enormity of the challenge is one that resonates with me. We must remember that there are members on this committee who were not born - sadly, I am not one of them - when the legislation was formulated in 1971. We will live with the new legislation for a long time and it is important that we get it right.

The Deputy's question speaks to the heart of the issue, that is, how to strike the right balance. Almost €1 billion has been borrowed by seven of our eight members. That is off the State's balance sheet due to the way it is treated. It is a complex process in which the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and EUROSTAT are involved, as the Deputy will be aware. It is related to the level of control that the State has over the sector. If the State exercises greater control through this legislation, there is a risk that existing loans will be cast onto the State's balance sheet, impairing the sector's capacity to borrow in future. We need to get the balance right. It is possible to frame the legislation in a way that does so, but it is important that the line is not overstepped.

I will defer to my colleague, but regarding the size of the governing authorities, we have suggested a range. We strongly support a competence-based approach, but some flexibility in the size ranges might be the way to go. We must recognise that different institutions may require different sizes depending on their scale and complexity.