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

I welcome the Minister's announcement that she will be bringing forward the legislation in the coming weeks. That is a positive development. Last year, in the aftermath of the resignation of five members of the National Concert Hall board, I raised a question with the Minister's predecessor in regard to those resignations and he responded:

There were disagreements among members who focused primarily on a fund-raising initiative in America at that particular time which, I understand, could have cost the National Concert Hall €1.5 million. What was thought to be a philanthropic arrangement resulted in a commercial arrangement. That just could not be allowed to happen, and it was not allowed to happen either by myself or by the board. Members were not happy with that arrangement and as a result they stepped down because of it.

The then Minister gave a clear understanding to the House on that occasion that the five people who resigned were the same people who had been advocating this supposed philanthropic arrangement with the US, which was not the case. Will the Minister accept that the Dáil was not given accurate information on that occasion?

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