Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am only putting this to the Minister because we hear things second-hand but something that has been mentioned to me in passing is that the board did not feel it could act in a particular way because of legal threats that were issued against it. The threat was that if the board was to move in a particular way on the executive, the board members, as I understand it, would be sued. I can well see how people appointed to a State board, given the pittance they get and the time they put in, would gladly put their hands in their pockets and walk away. I am trying to determine if there is an issue here. That is why I had hoped the Department would have engaged with those who left the board. I hoped it would do so to gain a clearer understanding of the situation, while recognising that it is there to represent the shareholder, which is the State. This is not directed at the Minister but at the entirety of the Department.