Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I concur with the points made by Senator McCarthy. There appears to be a sort of corporate governance that local authority members should not be on boards, which is wrong. Last week Senator McCarthy and I attended the launch in Dunmanway of the new west Cork community part of the Leader development. I believe at least five or six councillors are on that board. Here we have the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs promoting the Leader programme which has different names in different counties. That is one Department. The notion coming across from Departments is to get rid of local authority representatives from boards. I am not saying this is endemic in the Department of Transport.

Historically local authority members have had a major input into harbour boards. Senator McCarthy referred to Cork Port. As a former member of the Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners, I know that the local public representatives had a major input. I am not sure what the Minister of State can do in this regard. However, closing the door on them altogether is regrettable and wrong. Cork Port is a very big commercial port, probably one of the two or three biggest in the country. I have no doubt that the local authority members on that port's board have acquitted themselves extremely well and bring an extra dimension to those boards. I ask the Minister to review the matter if not today in this House, certainly in the other House. As Senators we have an affinity with councillors, who are our electorate. For us to ignore them here would be wrong.