Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for tabling her amendment.

My officials and I gave careful consideration to the report of the joint committee on this Bill, which arose from pre-legislative scrutiny, as well as the view that there should be more members on the new authority. Specifically, there should be a minimum of two, up to a maximum of five or six, as in Deputy O’Reilly’s amendment. As it stands, the section provides for up to three full-time members. It is designed to give the scope to structure the authority to meet the different demands of its remit, which includes investigation, prosecution, supervision and advocacy along clear lines of responsibility. The idea is to give flexibility. If a number of big cases arise at the same time, the new authority would be able to have an additional one or two members to work with the chairperson. The number of members of the authority has been assessed and has been deemed proportionate and appropriate in the medium term. However, the scope is there to raise the number up to three. That is comparable in scale of operations with other agencies, such as the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

The Minister sought the views of director and his assessment, in summary, was that a maximum of three persons is proportionate to the scale of the organisation in terms of assignment of responsibility to members and ratio of members to staff. We are satisfied, therefore, that under the legislation there is the opportunity to increase the number of members. While it is being established now solely with one chairperson, it is our feeling that that number will increase over time. However, according to the director’s assessment, the number is proportionate. There is the option to raise the number up to three into the future, if the workload increases and it is deemed necessary. If that is the case, we would not have any hesitation in raising it at that stage.