John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 15, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following subsection:

"(7) The Chief Executive Officer and the Chairperson shall whenever required by a committee of the Oireachtas give evidence to that committee on any projects with which it is involved that fall within the terms of reference of the said committee.".

This amendment seeks to broaden the scope of the Oireachtas committee to question the chief executive officer and the chairperson of the agency. I would not envisage that this amendment, if accepted, would be used often but it would be important that the facility would exist. Obviously, the requests would have to be reasonable. There would be instances where the advice of the agency to the committee would be deemed appropriate. I urge the Minister of State to accept the amendment which would provide for that facility.