Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

The Government has made significant process in reforming the process whereby people are appointed to State agencies and boards. A new process has been introduced whereby the relevant Oireachtas committee will have the opportunity to question the proposed chairpersons of State agencies, which is welcome. We have also introduced a system of open expressions of interest for positions on State boards, and as could be expected, we received some expressions of interest for positions on the authority and they are being examined. On that basis I cannot support providing for the consent of Seanad Éireann to the appointment of the authority's members and chairperson.