Mr. Flor Madden:

The Deputy can interrupt me as I go. If we go back a little over two years, a board consisting of nine members was in place. Eight of those positions were filled. The ninth was dedicated to Northern Ireland and that position could not be filled at the time. Of those eight, four were ministerial appointments and the remaining four came from among the affiliates. There were four advisory groups which the affiliates populated. The chair of each of those advisory groups automatically became a director of HSI. In other words, a chair within an advisory group was elected and he or she automatically had a seat on the board.

That was the case up until last November, almost 12 months ago. I may be a few weeks out on that. At that stage, over the space of a week, the then board resigned and the Minister for agriculture appointed four directors as an interim board. When they were appointed, the Minister said it would be until after the Olympics in order to provide stability.

So the board consisted of four, all ministerial appointments. A quorum of three was required for a board to meet. One of its jobs was to devise a new board structure. That new board structure, which they recommended, was for nine people. Again, four direct ministerial appointments. The fifth person was to be from the Northern Ireland Sports Forum, which I think is the correct title. The remaining four would go back again into the constituent groups but with one difference. Each of these advisory groups, that previously their chair was automatically a board member, were now asked to nominate two people who would then be interviewed "for consideration" for appointment as a director, so no guarantee any longer. If the two people who were interviewed were not considered suitable then the appointment would go back to the Minister. So in theory, under the new system, the Minister appoints four people to start, a fifth is appointed by the Northern Ireland Sports Forum and the remaining four, who would come from those four advisory fora, would nominate two people each, and if they were considered they would be appointed.