Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I regret I cannot accept the amendment, though I accept the motivation behind it. I do not consider it necessary that a member of the board should be required to inform the Minister of the reasons for his or her non-attendance at a board meeting. The members appointed to the board will be persons who have a responsible attitude to their role. There may be occasions where an unexpected event occurs and a board member will be unable to attend a meeting. I do not believe the member should be required to write a note to the Minister to explain his or her absence. The quorum for a board meeting has been set at five. We consider this to be the minimum number of members necessary to have a meeting.

Subsection (1)(a) of section 13 enables the Minister to remove an appointed member of the board if he or she is of the opinion that the member has become incapable, because of ill health, of satisfactorily fulfilling the role to which he or she was appointed. In addition, section 13(3) stipulates that a member of the board who fails to attend a meeting of the executive for six months ceases to hold office unless the member can satisfy the Minister that the failure to attend was due to illness. These are protections written into the legislation which address in part the concerns raised by Senator Browne.