Mr. Gavin Lawlor:

That is a really difficult question to answer. The process here is more about adding more board members in the first instance and then how they are selected. Is there a potential for someone to do something wrong in the future? There absolutely is. That is just human nature and no amount of legislation will prevent that. You have to pick the right person, so to speak. The idea of this legislation is to try to make sure we pick the right people to put on the board.

The issues with the board have been well and truly ventilated at this point. The Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, has produced a report that made it very clear it is difficulties with governance and with a misunderstanding, at best, or a lack of understanding about what constitutes a conflict of interest. That is the crux of the current issues that have come out of the board. As a result of that and the way confidence has eroded since April when the controversy first arose, we have taken too long to deal with it and taken too long to fill the board positions. It is quite alarming we have a board at the moment that essentially consists of four people. There are five there but one is on long-term sick leave. We have only four active board members, so that is one quorum and it cannot legally make decisions because it has no chair and no deputy chair. We would say this legislation is urgently needed. We need to get on with appointing board members and to do so in an open and transparent fashion. Will it prevent what has happened in the past? The legislation will not but I think that the OPR's action plan will.