Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

This has arisen because we are moving from a Dublin transport authority that was to have nine members to a national transport authority. While I may not necessarily appoint 11 members to the latter authority, 11 would be a more appropriate number for a national transport authority.

The amendment, which is to section 14(2)(d), requires that the chairperson and eight ordinary members, as opposed to the original six, shall be appointed from persons who, in the opinion of the Minister, have "wide experience in relation to transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration". It was suggested this appears to read as if any person appointed must have wide experience in all those areas. That is not the intent of the legislation; the intent is that appointees will have experience in as many of them as possible, but at least one.