Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am willing to listen to argument. Let us take the case of the IDA board. It includes such people as Lionel Alexander of Hewlett-Packard (Manufacturing) Limited, Liam O’Mahony of CRH plc., Paul Duffy of Pfizer and so on. Many of them have waived their fees for participation on the board. They are people of considerable quality in sectors we need to bring to bear in the work of the IDA. The boards are quality boards delivering a quality service. One could equally say that of various other boards. By and large board members are there for the right reasons. Perhaps that is not the case all the time but we are very careful. We advertise board vacancies and try to get the best talent available.

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