Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think Deputy Stanton has asked most of the questions. I was there when this was set up. It filled an important gap and continues to do so. It is good to see this is being placed on a more permanent footing.

I hope the credit unions will increasingly see their role in this. They have quite a lot of untapped reserves which can play an important role in communities.

Looking at performance, the €24 million loss Ms Carberry mentioned against more than 10,000 jobs works out at €2,500 per job. That does not represent bad value for money, considering MFI is dealing with the less bankable start-ups. I recall during the deepest years of the crisis after the financial crash, start-ups still created more than 100,000 jobs in Ireland over a period of five years, which was important at the time.

Does the Department intend to refresh the entrepreneurship policy that we published around 2014 or 2015? I do not remember the exact year. It is more important than ever, in an environment where there are always question marks over our reliance on external investment. It would be worth reviewing that policy to see how far down the road we have gone and what has been successful and what has not. That is one question.

I welcome improved governance, but has there been any independent evaluation of how well the PAS is performing in finding good board members? It tends to be somewhat passive in building up a wide repertoire of people who could potentially contribute. We tend to see the same names again and again. Many of them come from the public service, which is not to say that is not a good thing, but I wonder whether serving on State boards has become something that is not on the radar of people who have experience in the private sector. While it is good practice and having an independent process is important, we need some assurance that the PAS model is hunting down good talent, including minority talent. We need to see a balanced mix on our State boards. The PAS needs to have the capacity to find good people to serve on boards as they play an important role. I would be interested to hear whether any work is being done to look at the PAS and its capacity to reach people. At times when I was there, I saw nominations come up and there was not one woman among the nominees. It is hard to understand that a body charged with finding membership of boards could not find a woman with the competencies. Those are my two questions as the more detailed ones have already been answered.

Finally, will the Bill specify board membership? Will it say this is the kind of mix of skills and capacity we want to see on the board or will it be left to a Minister or the PAS to draw up the criteria for board membership?