Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The sooner, the better. The Minister should issue a guidance chart. The Department of Finance has issued three or four in recent years. One is Welcome to the Board, a document for people on semi-State bodies. Another concerns governance issues. Recently the Department issued a third, an update on how governance should operate. Anybody who does not know how it operates should not be in the Oireachtas. There is no question that this is crucial to how we do our business and to the importance we attach to ourselves. We should not have to hold back on issues of importance to us and what we believe to be solutions that must be made work.

Let us be clear about what the Minister was saying about asking questions. He will answer questions in the Houses on the operational issues but not on how or why a tender is granted, or on why legal action is taken. There are boards all over Dublin city and if they heard a Member say we could intervene in the sale or purchase of land or in the issuing of a tender - in fairness, no Member has - they would find it outrageous.