Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The council is free to co-opt additional persons onto its committees. The point was made very strongly to me by the president of the Medical Council and the CEO, Mr. John Lamont, that with such a rigid structure it was difficult to get the required complement of people for the various committees, given the requirements under existing legislation. We are giving the council the authority to recruit whatever expertise it requires for its committees, whenever it feels that is desirable. That will deliver the type of flexibility needed and, hopefully, give the council both the expertise and the input from the educational training sector it requires for this as well as other areas.