John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 30, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following:
"41.Subsection (1) of section 18 of the Principal Act is amended by substituting "be set by the Minister" for "be set by the Council".".

I welcome the Minister of State and her officials and acknowledge their very active role in the proceedings.
There is a tendency for bureaucracies to get bigger, there is a tendency for bureaucrats to self aggrandise, there is a tendency for organisations to define new roles for themselves to start hiring all manner of people involved in public resources, in lobbying and engagement. There is a tendency to think that the headquarters of the organisation could, perhaps, be upgraded a little. Very often in these organisations the money for that comes exclusively from the practitioners: the opticians, the optometrists, physiotherapists, radiographers, radiotherapists who have to pay it. Every time their retention fee goes up, there is a high chance that, in turn, will represent an increased revenue burden on either the Exchequer, if they are paying the fees of the person in question, or the individual, patient, citizen who goes to see them.
I would have thought the Minister of State would have approved of this. Basically, it gives the Minister a little more power, just to make sure that the group of people who are deciding on the needs of their bureaucracy and also the people who are deciding what the revenue stream for it should be, that there is an extra level of checks and balances on the fees set. Across the many registration boards and CORU, the council, there would be people with many diverse roles and there may well be some who would see merit in hiring additional persons about the necessity for whose employment there may be some controversy. All I am saying is that there should be an extra level of scrutiny and that it should come from the Minister.