Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 11, subsection (1), line 10, to delete "14 members" and substitute "12 members".

This is an issue of corporate governance. Most State bodies are too big to be effective because the size of the board reflects the political need to appoint people to it rather than a desire to get the job done. I was chairman of the board of An Post and to make sure unions were represented there was a board of 15 people. In business it would be rare to find a board of that size. Cabinet works well as a board of 15 people but that is not generally the case. Once a group has a membership greater than 12 it becomes clumsy.

The object should be to build a team that will work together in pursuit of common objectives. When a board is larger than 12 members, it is hard to build the necessary cohesion. People behave as individuals rather than team members and often it is necessary to split up into sub-committees, which have their own problems. It is often harder to get a quorum from a larger membership. It might not appear there is a great difference between a board of 12 and one of 14 but there is a world of difference.