Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

This is a standard legislative provision which appears in many other enactments and applies in general to State bodies. It is also one that is frequently the subject of debate when enacting legislation. The purpose of the subsection is to separate the position of chief executive when appearing before an Oireachtas committee. At the end of the day, it is the Minister who is responsible for policy and politically responsible to the Oireachtas. The chief executive has a means of influencing policy within the Department and I am satisfied that the mechanisms available are sufficiently robust. It is the function of the Opposition to scrutinise and criticise Government policy. The chief executive deserves protection from Opposition Deputies and Senators when he or she appears before them.

The subsection does not preclude the chief executive from discussing matters of public interest. The chief executive is employed by a public body and obliged to work within its structures. It would not be a good policy for a chief executive of a State organisation to be able to criticise Government policy when appearing before an Oireachtas committee. This provision reflects existing practice under legislation and I am not willing to exempt the chief executive of Inland Fisheries Ireland from this exclusion. Accordingly, I cannot accept the amendment.

There was a detailed discussion on the issue at the committee. A chief executive who has such deep-seated difficulties with Government policy has a number of options, including resignation or robustly raising the matter internally with the Minister. It would not be helpful if a chief executive could depart from that reporting line, through the Executive and Parliament. It is possible for a chief executive who is getting nowhere but who does not wish to resign to informally enlighten Opposition Members of how his or her concerns are not being met. We know this has occurred frequently during the years when Opposition Members were very well informed of what was going on in some bodies. That is proper and sufficiently robust.