Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister received some recognition for being the first Minister in a very long time to try to amend the system for making State appointments, certainly in regard to the broadcasting sector. That principle is welcome. We have learned some lessons from the process, however. One lesson is that there needs to be proper interaction between the Minister who will be making the appointments and the all-party Oireachtas committee being asked to make recommendations to the Minister. The committee's job is to ensure balance on the board and that the team of representatives is appropriate in terms of its skill set, motivation and sectoral interest in the case of this legislation.

We should not forget that this is an even more complex process than that associated with making appointments to the board of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Three Ministers will be responsible for appointing people to the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland, namely, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, who will each nominate one member; and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, who will nominate two. The Oireachtas committee will then be asked to make its recommendations, presumably on the basis of what has come through this ministerial appointments process. Amendments Nos. 15 and 16 seek to ensure that the consultation process between the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the committee is a full and detailed one and that it will be the committee which makes an informed and proper choice on the basis of the information it has obtained from the Minister.

While I am on the subject, I do not understand the rationale for tasking the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs with the appointment of one member of the board. Instead, it would be far more suitable to assign this function to the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism. I made this case to the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, on Committee Stage, but he did not deem it possible to make the change at this stage. However, the involvement of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government surely means that all environmental and rural issues will be covered. The balance of interests in terms of the Ministers charged with powers to make appointments would be better served by having the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism rather than the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs as one of the three. However, that is an aside. The main issue is that the relationship and co-operation between the committee and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is such that the committee can be sure of having all the facts it needs in order to make an informed choice in terms of appointments to the board.

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