Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

On Committee Stage I believe the Minister indicated that he was in favour of providing for the possibility of local authority members becoming members of the authority. He has tabled a number of amendments to section 40 to provide for that. However, the Minister is opposed to making it a mandatory requirement that a local authority member be appointed to the authority. It is believed that as the Minister for Transport will be responsible for appointing the members of the authority he should have discretion to pick the best people available, which could include one or more local authority members.