Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

How can the Minister reconcile what he has just said with his decision to drive out the chief executive and six directors of the Equality Authority who believe the authority has been neutered and undermined? It has been killed off, in effect, in terms of its traditional role. Will the Minister answer the question he evaded the last time we discussed this matter? If his purpose was to save money, why did the Government add four directors to the board? Why did it decide last year to pay the 12 directors for the first time, at a total cost of €113,000? Why did it decide to pay them for the first time when their predecessors who served selflessly had to do their tremendous work without remuneration? How does the Minister reconcile this with his stated desire to save money?

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