Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Will the Minister of State please sit down and allow me to speak? It does not do his office any service. There is a certain misunderstanding in the debate.

I welcome the two amendments that have been tabled because this is an area about which I have always been uneasy. I agree with the Minister of State's leader, the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, when he defends the right of public representatives to be appointed to boards in certain situations when they have expertise. Being a public representative is honourable and it should not automatically exclude one from being appointed to a board where one is a suitable contender.

I appreciate there is much frustration about the HSE and this has spilled over today. I certainly share that frustration. However, in this instance we should remember that the Minister of State has introduced legislation which has the support of the sector. It results from a major report examining how to ensure the future management of our fisheries. Generally speaking, we all support the approach. On the specifics of whether somebody happens to be on a local authority, the Minister of State has taken on board the approach taken by Fine Gael in the Seanad. I certainly welcome that.

Since the Minister of State has mentioned the appointments he has made, he must be aware - I would like to ensure that he is fully aware - that there are concerns about those appointments. Obviously, the joint Oireachtas committee will have an opportunity to make up for the imbalance that has arisen. However, I have concerns as it has already happened with regard to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It is really not the job of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to ensure there is balance. Our job is to find the very best people but very often we end up not necessarily with the best but with those who fit the categories ignored by the Minister of State.

The chairperson of the Southern Regional Fisheries Board and others have made the point that the board members were unhappy with the lack of representation from the coarse, commercial, drift, draft, snap and sea-angling sectors, and the lack of regional balance with no representation from the east, south east and south west of the country. This is obviously a gap and an imbalance that we will have to address and I urge the Minister of State to take this into account. Ultimately, it is not us who make the appointments, it is the Minister of State. It is a pity that a new board with a new life and a new approach has already been subject to a certain amount of controversy.

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