Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I agree with Senator Mansergh. It is now the custom and practice in both public and private bodies for the chief executive officer to be part of the board. It is good from the point of view of corporate governance and the smooth running of an organisation that the chief executive officer is given equality of treatment with other board members. A chief executive officer is placed in a difficult position if he or she must attend board meetings merely on the basis of informing the board of what might be happening in the organisation. From every perspective it is a good thing for the chief executive officer to be an equal member with others. He or she will, after all, be charged with running the organisation on a day to day basis.

Arguments could be made for and against that practice. Some feel good corporate governance requires that the chief executive officer is not a full member of the board. However, I think it works well if he or she is a full member. To the best of my knowledge, in all the organisations under the remit of my Department the chief executive officer is a full member of the board. I think it works well and is good practice. In the past, the role of chief executive officer and chairman were sometimes performed by the same person or the chairman's position was an executive function, which is not good practice. It is correct procedure to have an independent chairman and a separate chief executive officer.