Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I will not comment on the Minister of State's last few remarks. We will leave them to history. I have concerns on subsection (2)(a) which states, "a person appointed under the former enactment shall continue to act for the remainder of the period for which the person was appointed as if appointed under the new enactment". I am thinking of the Government's proposal to restructure the Higher Education Authority, in which an enactment will repeal another enactment and substitute other provisions. Does this mean that the Government cannot replace the current members of the Higher Education Authority, who have been appointed under one enactment, by the group it wants to appoint under the new enactment? I am not trying to waste time but this crossed my mind when I read the Bill. Where Government bodies are appointed but the Government changes the law, as will be done in the case of the Higher Education Authority, what happens to the existing appointees?