Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I know, but the Minister would not suddenly decide that a person was in ill health. What would happen is that, for one reason or another, the person would miss a number of meetings or may have acted erratically at a board meeting or meetings. There could be circumstances of which the Minister would be advised. On the basis of the advice and evidence given to him, perhaps a doctor's certificate if a person was willing to leave the board, at that stage the Minister would make a decision on medical grounds that a person should be removed from the board. That is one example I can think of.

The other example would not work because of the nature of the client-doctor relationship. If the person did not want to leave the board he or she would refuse to give the information and the Minister would be bound by the amendment and would have to get the medical certificate from the person's physician. That would not be practical.

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