Joe O'Toole (Independent)

It has always been my view that it does not need to be five years. If somebody moves directly from being a senior executive to being a board member, one could not describe him or her as independent. That probably happens quite regularly. A person might move from being a senior executive or perhaps retire from the executive function and become an non-executive director. I accept that such a person could not be seen as independent one year later. Perhaps a reduction of the five year timeframe could be considered so that there could be a type of limbo period. This could be considered because I do not think it would significantly change anything and five years is a long time. I am not being ageist, but if somebody retired from an executive function at 60 years of age and if we were to add five years on to that, he or she would be beginning to call time on things.