Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

—with registers of interests and declarations. Given that we all comply with the law of the land in regard to registering or declaring interests, I do not see a problem. Members are aware of semi-State bodies, the boards of which include some excellent politicians. I know of one elected politician who represents Senator Leyden's party in my part of the country and who was an excellent appointment to the board of Bord Fáilte.

There are directors of a company that is, to a large extent, owned by a semi-State body who are also trustees of that body's shareholding. If people hold shares in their own beneficial interests and are, in addition, trustees who represent all of us, they must surely have a conflict of interest. However, the situation to which I refer continues to obtain. That is the unacceptable side of the coin. I am just trying to find a happy medium and I do not see why politicians must be automatically disbarred from sitting on the board. I wish to hear the Minister of State address that point.

Standards should obviously be the same across all State and semi-State companies and bodies, but that is clearly not the case. To borrow language that would be a lot more familiar to my colleague, Senator O'Toole, the entire issue is somewhat of a scata bullán. Do Members know what is a scata bullán?