Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To be frank with the Deputy, in respect of all the main boards — most of them are smaller boards now — one would not survive on a board for too long without the necessary expertise and competency. I refer in particular to the commercial State-sponsored boards, which are the main boards. They have large budgets and staffs, audit committees and high governance levels, and it is difficult enough to recruit people who are prepared to offer their time and service to the State. Normally people who are very high ranking in their own businesses or companies, or who are of a certain age, are sought.

On Deputy Kenny's second question, some thought has been put into the issue of involving committees of the House in examining appointments to some boards. Some of my colleagues will try to bring forward proposals in this regard. I do not think it will be too long before the Deputy will see some of those proposals. We will leave it to the Ministers to explain how precisely it will work. Some of my colleagues wish to involve committees — I think this has been debated in the committees — so that rather than being from a party political position it will be from membership of committees. I think it is worth trying anyway and seeing what happens. A few of my ministerial colleagues will try to pilot this and bring it forward shortly. I will leave it to them to go into that in the future.

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