Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

This issue was touched on previously. A couple of expert reports produced during the past seven or eight years have recommended that local authority members do not serve on the boards of commercial port companies. Senator O'Donovan spoke about harbour commissioners rather than commercial ports. It is true that the boards of both were in the past made up of a broad spectrum of groups and various interests. However, life has moved on and that is no longer the case in respect of the ten commercial ports.

Commercial State port companies have changed since the introduction of the Harbours Act 1996, as has the industry which has opened up. Major organisational and cultural changes have taken place. The position taken in the Department of Transport is that, for good or bad, port companies are now the only commercial State companies that have councillors on their boards. I am not attacking councillors. If Senator O'Donovan wants me to say that councillors do much committed work around the country, I will not disagree with that as a public representative. I was a councillor for many years and councillors do great work. They are telling all of us they are busier than ever and that may or may not be true. I do not want to get into the argument of how councillors were taken off health boards as I am not necessarily saying that was the right decision. These are two different issues. Councillors on health boards did much good work and, for example, they asked questions and got answers for simple matters rather than getting strategy statements all the time.

The fundamental difference between this and the HSE or anywhere else is we are talking about commercial State companies. The remit and purpose has changed and we are bringing the numbers of board members down from 12 to eight in order to have tighter and more focused groups dealing with the job at hand of managing and running a State commercial organisation. That is where the change has come about.

There has been an evolution of the old harbour commissioners and they are now commercial State companies. That is the reason the change has been made. In the Department of Transport we would equate them to airport authorities and there are no councillors on Dublin Airport Authority, Shannon Airport Authority or in Cork. We are bringing the port companies into line with what is happening elsewhere in other commercial State companies. This is the yardstick and target and it is what we are trying to do. It is on such a basis we recommend this change.

It is the intention that one of the statutory appointees will be a councillor.