Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The number of boards is being reduced in this legislation. A number of them have been amalgamated. The answer I gave the Deputy is that remuneration of members of the agency, in effect, its board, does not fall within the public sector pay caps. The questions are whether they are doing a good job and how effective they are. Are we getting value for money? They are the real questions. Experience would show that the NTMA accumulated a fantastic amount of money over many years. The results and the income it got for the State ran into billions of euro. Unfortunately, given what happened to our economy, much of that money is gone to do what it had to do but the fact is that the NTMA gained exceptional levels of income for the State. I hope that capacity to reward enterprise, create jobs and improve our economy is what this is all about. It is not about anything else.