Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Sections Nos. 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) will be deleted. It was initially the case that each member of the board would be appointed for a fixed five-year term, with no flexibility regarding that. We wanted to mitigate the fact that we might have everybody there for the full five years and retiring, for example, at the same time. In the original Bill, section 23(4) states: "On each anniversary of the establishment day, one member of the regulator (other than the chairperson) shall retire." Section 23(5) states: "The member of the regulator to retire under subsection (4) [which I just read out] in a given year shall be the member who has been longest in office since last being appointed, subject to subsection (6)" and section 23(6) states: "Where there are members of the regulator who were appointed on the same day, one of whom would be obliged under subsection (5) to retire, the member who is to retire shall, unless those members otherwise agree, be determined by lot."

Deputy Carthy tabled an amendment stating, subject to all that, that if somebody is to retire early, it should not be one of the primary producers. These amendments provide for terms that shall be up to five years, which then provides the capacity to be able to manage that. For example, it could be managed in a way that the board is initially appointed for five years and, subsequent to that, someone could be reappointed for two, three or four years, someone could step down after five years, or it could be staggered before that. It is a much cleaner and more sensible way, on reflection and mature consideration, to deal with it. It is also much more robust in the long term.