Mr. Gerry Kearney:

Certainly. From where we are standing, consultation on the proposal in regard to additional functions being conferred is very welcome. I have a small suspicion, and I am sure the staff of the Department is better equipped on this matter, that one would want to have a fairly good legal reference for the conferral of additional functions on a statutory body when those functions are already set out. It would want to be fairly cautiously framed. It has to be relevant to what the Oireachtas has approved. The proposal for consultation is very welcome but even within that there would be certain limits that the courts would set on what was appropriate for a Minister to confer, even with the agreement of the body.

Going back to Deputy Mulherin's point, there is a balance to be struck between accountability and independence. The narrative is probably a general policy issue about board members coming before Oireachtas Committees as a collective. There are certain merits there. It is perhaps unusual to hear it from this side of the table, but there are merits beyond what is put on a paper application and put into an institutional process. Part of it is about interpersonal competence and there is a part that is richer than that. I think the proposal was trying to reach into that. It is a matter of public policy that goes well beyond ourselves, but the suggestion certainly has merit that the Department may wish to consider.