Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

We must look at these matters in the future to see how best to achieve this. We need to ensure there are people who want to serve and that they get the opportunity to put forward their case to serve. That would be good. On the question of suitability, Ministers must get people who they believe would be up for the job. In many cases, they are not based on political allegiances or whatever, as is often portrayed. It is about getting the right people for the job.

On many occasions, as incoming Minister, I have reappointed people appointed by a previous Administration because they were good and I was well advised that they had made a good and strong contribution to the development of the agency or organisation. We need to keep an open mind. It has to be about how we build public confidence for those who are being asked to serve. As we know very strenuous duties of care come with membership of boards. We need to be clear and careful that when issues of accountability need to be addressed we do so in such a way that does not mean people, who otherwise would be able to do well and fix the problem, cannot continue to contribute. Accountability here is sometimes portrayed as, when a mistake is made it means that is it and no one is fit to serve on anything. It is about how one deals with mistakes and errors that counts as far as I am concerned - that is the litmus test of being accountable rather than a culture of perfection, which usually ends up with no one doing anything and having a very process-driven operation without getting very much out of people.

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