Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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We have now established that the parent Department was not involved in any part of the recruitment process. Is that good? For the record, I believe the OSi is a good operation. However, when it decided to bring in outside expertise and strike a contractual deal but excluded the parent Department, it does not wash with me to claim there is a commercial arm to the organisation’s activities. In the first instance, the OSi is a public service entity and provider. It receives a large subvention from the State which dwarves any of the commercial income it makes. In addition to this €20,000 bonus, in defiance of FEMPI, there is a larger issue around how the OSi would go about bringing in this marketing expertise. It is not acceptable that it would have decided or have had the authority to bring in a marketing expert without a sanction from the parent Department. I presume the board was acting within its authority.