Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

This section deals with the establishment of a Garda executive management board. While I agree with much of the section, the requirement that a person should cease to be a non-executive member of the board upon being elected to the Oireachtas or a local authority seems to be part of a thread that is creeping through the legislation passed in these Houses. Local authority members and public representatives appear to be under attack by means of their exclusion from many of the boards provided for in legislation over the past several months.

The Bill requires board members to have expertise in the strategic and financial management of organisations, human resources and planning and review functions. Is the Bill suggesting local authority members are not willing and able to develop those qualifications? I know many people in this House and on local authorities who, despite having the relevant qualifications, are barred from boards because they are public representatives. That is a disgrace and an insult to members of the Oireachtas and local authorities, and the policy should be rethought.

Members have paid lip-service to this issue during the debates on other Bills but they went along with the Whip when it came to the crunch. If they felt so strongly about the matter, they should vote against it. I am conveying my concerns about the exclusion of public representatives from this and other boards contained in the legislation passed in this House.