Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I accept the Deputies' arguments but the rationale is that we are moving away from a worker director system. I appreciate the point made by Deputies Penrose and Morgan that the worker director model has served well. In the new board we are moving towards a structure which does not have prescribed nominations, that is, a person will be nominated by the Minister, who is accountable to the House. It may also include the director general as an ex officio member of the board to have a line of communication between the day-to-day operations of the function and the members of the board. That will provide a voice at the table to represent the line of the communication with the day-to-day work of FÁS, that is, the director general will be on the board and will have an input into board decisions. That will suffice for a voice around the table.

I also said on Committee Stage that we are open to recommendations on the composition of the board from the Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. If it wishes to submit the name of a worker in FÁS, we would view that person in the context of a recommendation from the committee.

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