Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My sense is that the appointment of public interest directors was a good idea. Citizens would expect, however, that such directors would be more visible and be seen to be openly defending the public interest. Mr. MacSharry hit the core point in his opening remarks - that he has the same legal and fiduciary responsibilities as the other directors. That is the position under company law. While it was a good idea to have people appointed under the umbrella of being in the public interest, it is a flaw that a proper structure was not put on that. Some channel should have been put in place so that public interest directors could express their views, thus distinguishing themselves from the other directors. That is the key issue.

It has emerged from the Chairman's questions that there is no distinguishable channel of communication between the directors, the Department or the Minister as opposed to the chairman or chief executive officer of the company. That is the fundamental flaw as I see it.