Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

——they sometimes forget there is another House. The subsection is located in a general section dealing with the attendance of the chief executive officer before Oireachtas committees. It is in that context that the subsection is enacted. Senators will notice that subsection (9) begins with the words: "In carrying out duties under this section." It is not an attempt to prohibit or censor the chief executive in any way but to delineate the position of the chief executive officer when he or she appears before an Oireachtas committee.

If one were to accept the amendment and delete the provision, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children would be free to ask the chief executive officer about matters of policy and his or her agreement or disagreement with it, and he or she would be obliged to answer. Matters of policy are properly the domain of Ministers and the Government. It would not be appropriate for a representative of the executive to comment on policy matters. To ask a chief executive officer such a question would compromise his or her ability to properly serve the elected Government of the day and would also compromise the ability of the Government to have a working relationship with the chief executive officer, who has a pivotal role under this legislation in the planning and execution of policy in regard to health matters. This type of provision is standard in legislation setting up commercial semi-State bodies.