Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

This becomes more muddled as we go along. There is an enormous need to go back and redraft this section. The Minister made an analogy with An Coimisinéir Teanga. As he conceded, An Coimisinéir Teanga does not have a board. In terms of accountability to this House, to whom is the chairperson of the board responsible? Obviously, the Committee of Public Accounts or any other committee cannot hold the chairperson of the board responsible for actions for which he or she is not responsible. Surely however, as a modern-day democracy it should be within the power of the Committee of Public Accounts to summon the chairperson to deal with those issues for which he or she has responsibility and which could impinge on the decisions taken by the chief executive of the other agency, the National Treasury Management Agency. This becomes more incredible as we go along.

My suggestion has some merit. However, because of the overall sloppiness in the Bill's structure and drafting, the Minister should go back to Committee Stage and return with a properly amended section 47 so that its purpose is clear to anyone reading the legislation. There is a principle whereby a chairperson of a board involved with a fund of €200 million is not being accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts for the actions for which that person is responsible. I have not ever come across anything quite like section 47 of the principal Act as we seek to amend it.

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