Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I have a couple of questions in respect of section 9 regarding some points which confused me. Perhaps I am easily confused. Section 9(10) uses the phrase "a person shall be disqualified for holding and shall cease to hold office". I appreciate the sensitivity of the draftspeople in recent years because at one time this clause would have included bankrupts, criminals and Members of the Oireachtas as the three excluded categories. At least membership of the Oireachtas is dealt with separately. I must admit to taking offence when it was included in the same section. Obviously, someone has responded to my sensitivities and has decided to put it in a separate section to avoid the implication that these were three different categories of the same kind of sinner.

However, section 9(10) does not make it clear as to whether a member of the authority will be disqualified if he or she is adjudged bankrupt or to meet any of the other specified conditions, or whether someone who has been so adjudged can never be a member of the authority. There are different categories of people in this regard. I am unsure whether anyone who is convicted of an indictable offence in respect of a company should ever be allowed to be a member of a body which deals with public money. On the other hand, if people have the misfortune to be obliged to make an arrangement with creditors in business at some stage in their lives, this should not exclude them forever from participation in such boards.

Ireland claims to be a country in which risk-taking meets with approval and sometimes business ventures go wrong and decent honest people must make arrangements with their creditors. It ought not to be something which remains on their record forever. Hence, can the Minister clarify whether the specified conditions are simply disqualifications for people once they have been appointed, or do they apply to anyone who has ever suffered any of these various embarrassments?