Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

There was no public consultation whatsoever when the Minister recently appointed an executive chairman to CIE, a job that pays at least €210,000 per annum. Given this appointment was made after the Minister's experiment with the National Transport Authority, which we all supported, why did he not advertise the position publicly? It is important that the principle the Minister rightly supported for that authority should be continued, but he ignored it with his reappointment of the chairman of CIE. While I am not questioning his capacity to do the job, there are dozens of other people who would love to have a go. The transport committee would be very happy to invigilate the Minister's nominee, especially in respect of policies, transparency and accountability in the CIE group.

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