Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It goes without saying that while we cannot impose sanctions, perhaps in our next report we might be in a position to recommend and specify some type of sanction that would be implemented by the relevant Department. We will not implement it but we can make a recommendation that there be some sanctions. We might even specify them at that stage. My instinct is our main challenge would be to the board of directors or governance of any State body. Our sanctions should not involve any cuts to services down the line, whether it is in the HSE, health, social or education sector. Our sanctions should be directed at board level because they are the people who are responsible for running the organisations. Our sanctions should be directed at that level. They are the people responsible for corporate governance, not the staff down the line. That is a thought. We will come back to it on another day. There is scope for us to do something on sanctions where there has been a breach of corporate governance. The responsibility should start with the chairman of the board and board members.