Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 18, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following subsection:

"(2) The chief executive of the Authority may attend at meetings of the Authority and speak but shall not be a member of the Authority.".

The purpose of this amendment is to ensure appropriate standards of corporate governance are maintained. It is clearly preferable that there would be a separation between the governing board and the management in the form of a chief executive to ensure proper accountability. We suggest the chief executive may attend meetings of the authority and speak but will not be a member of the authority. This would be quite common in organisations in Ireland and elsewhere and is good practice. I ask the Minister to accept it.