Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 20:

In page 21, line 10, to delete “in each period of three months” and substitute “per month”.

Section 13 deals with the frequency of meetings. As drafted, the section provides that the authority shall hold such and so many meetings as may be necessary for the due performance of its functions but in each year shall hold not less than one meeting in each period of three months. Given the magnitude of the task the Minister has outlined to the House and the sheer volume of the legislation dealing with it, the normal practice of boards should be followed of having a meeting once a month. This is a major task and there is a very demanding timetable. Four meetings a year do not seem adequate to the task before the authority. That is why I have asked for the work agenda to be more demanding.

Section 13(1)(b) provides:

In addition to a meeting with all participants physically present, the Authority may hold or continue a meeting by the use of any means of communication by which all the participants can hear and be heard at the same time.

If that is a reference to incorporeal meetings, I note - and I do not want to let secrets out - that this practice is one of the things the banking inquiry was most unhappy about. Those should be meetings where people are present. Like this afternoon, it is about the flow and ebb of ideas back and forth. Arising from the banking inquiry, we will likely recommend that incorporeal meetings should not be a feature of Government going forward. I will leave it to Deputy Ciarán Lynch to say. Given the experience we have spent ten or 11 months talking about down in the dungeons, there is an unhappy precedent in this regard. There is no substitute for people being at a meeting, putting forward propositions, and listening to others in the context of good decision-making.

In summary, more meetings are, unfortunately, needed due to the gravity of the task. They should be real meetings rather than incorporeal ones.