Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

To come back to the points raised by the Deputies Nash and O'Callaghan, again, it is intended that the Department of Housing. Local Government and Heritage nominee may be on the political control side of things. Similarly with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, there would be a consumer representative. I give the commitment that when the Bill is before the Seanad we will give further consideration to those in reviewing section 22. That may be the best place to try to further tease out those representative groups.

Separately, I wish to address the points raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett. The points had been raised earlier in the context of other amendments. It is not specific that the body is named in the Bill. The mechanism is there. I outlined earlier to Members the independence of the body and the robustness of that to ensure that it is an independent structure. I have given those assurances to the Members in that regard.

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