Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regrettably, what the Minister is saying to us today and what the general scheme of the Bill is saying are not one and the same thing. Why would the Minister want to be in a position to direct the board of the NCH? That the current or any future Minister should be in a position to direct the activities of the board is bizarre in the extreme. Indeed, it is the antithesis of how a government should be treating any national cultural institution. It also seems to me to be unprecedented, in the context of cultural legislation at least, that any draft plan or strategy would be exempt from the freedom of information process for five years, as the general scheme provides. Why would the plans or strategies of the NCH be exempt from the FOI process? Why would such a provision be included in the legislation? It makes no sense.

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