Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I appreciate that the requirements and job specification would be set out, which is absolutely necessary. If the ultimate power of decision is not vested in the committee - if one is to be cynical about it - does it not then simply become an optical exercise? I do not suggest that the committees should become simply blocking mechanisms, but if one were to scrutinise the candidature of any person for any appointment, surely the logical outflow from that is that the committee would have the power to either accept or reject, to endorse or otherwise the candidacy for any particular position. It leads me to conclude that perhaps this is simply optics and a rubber-stamping mechanism.

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