Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Deputy Howlin's questions and in light of the debacle around the national children's hospital, the reporting obligations of civil servants appointed to the board require very considerable further explanation, and not just in that particular instance because of the particular clauses referred to by Deputy Howlin. More generally, the issue has arisen with public interest directors in the banks and semi-State bodies. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and I presume it is replicated everywhere else, bizarre situations arose where, when issues relating to the body to which they were appointed were being discussed, public representatives would walk out of the room claiming that they had a conflict of interest. I do not understand that. What is the point of us putting civil servants or indeed public representatives on boards of State agencies if they are not responsible to this House or democratic bodies and have responsibilities relating to reporting? What is point of putting them in there and if, in this case, they are somehow subject to the confidentiality of a project group? It seems to defeat the purpose of putting them on the board in the first place. Surely the only point of putting a civil servant on a project board like that or on the board of any agency or semi-State agency is that they are there to mind the public interest and to report back if the public interest is adversely affected.

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