Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

Whereas I welcome the appointment of the new members — I know both people — I remind the Minister that there is no female member of Bord na gCon. This flies in the face of Government policy concerning gender balance on such boards. It is inexplicable why the Minister has not made such an appointment.

Does the Minister agree that the chairman of Bord na gCon had no option but to publicly defend his name, reputation and integrity because of leaks to the media in order to personalise this affair and in some way damage him as well? All of this refers back to the use of prohibited substances, EPO in this case. Before I left office in 1997, I had prepared a Bill to take control out of the hands of the board so that in this instance, the chairman of the board would not preside over this type of case. It was not carried forward by the Government at that time. Despite what the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, said about the Supreme Court case, on numerous occasions in the House since then I have raised the issue of control and the fact that it should be taken from the board. Would the Minister accept my proposed private Members' Bill at this time as an immediate solution to this problem when we discuss the report here?

Will the Minister make the observations available to us when we discuss the matter in the House? In that way, not alone will we discuss the Dalton report but also the observations of the various persons affected by that report. That would only be fair to Deputy Wall and me so we can be well informed when we have the debate in this House.

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