Ms Maria Graham:

-----so I apologise for that, as the committee needs to have the papers.

First, on the appointment of chair and those listed there, we will proceed on that basis and that is our intention. The Senator referenced the local authority representation there. On the panel system, we need to distinguish between those who have an interest in ensuring there is a collective mix of people on the board and how we get that, and how people apply and come to the fore. I accept the Seanad has a panel system but also has an electoral system with it. One of the issues is that under the current panel system for the board, names come to the Department from the nominating bodies. We have no idea what process is behind that, how open it is, who can apply, how they apply and how they are assessed by the nominating body. That is not to cause any question over the nominating bodies but it seems reasonable to us that there should be a far more open process that allows anyone who meets the criteria that members have mentioned to apply to be an ordinary member of the board. We are very open to hearing how we can get that mix and there has been a common view around both the mix on the board and the mix on the committee, or whoever may be judging how we get that mix. Our central feeling at this stage is that the panel system is not as open as would be appropriate and there also needs to be a process to give recommendations to the Minister deriving from that. That is what we try to achieve in those systems. The Senator has mentioned a number of areas and we are open to looking at all of this, if he feels there are gaps in skills we can look at in terms of the committee and the board itself.