Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

On the question of representation for commuters and others, I already provided a breakdown in respect of the membership of the advisory council. Four of the members of the council will be representative of the public interest and will be appointed by the Minister. These individuals can be nominated by different interest groups. Therefore, the concerns to which the Senator refers in this regard are covered by this group of amendments.

As regards the Joint Committee on Transport vetting board members, we made a number of changes regarding the authority, appointments thereto and the role of the joint committee. The latter has been given a new role, to which I will refer in respect of a later group of amendments. To allow the joint committee to vet people and make final decisions in respect of the board's membership would be an abdication of the responsibility of the Minister and the Government to make such decisions. Therefore, no change has been made in that regard.