Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a point of principle that people should not automatically be excluded from a board simply because they are councillors. There is no justification for that. People who go forward for councils are generally people who are interested in participation and making a contribution to various aspects of life in their localities.

The Minister can correct me if I am wrong on the following. Maybe I am reading it wrongly. If a local authority takes over a port and integrates the assets, the corporate veil is gone. In that scenario, they are subject, like any asset of a local authority, to the direct input and control of the councillors. In a scenario where a local authority takes over the shares of the company, we are excluding them from involvement in it. That looks like an anomaly to me. Can the Minister give me the logic behind it? If one owns the assets directly and is trading them, one has a direct input. If shares are purchased and the corporate veil is maintained, however, one is debarred from a direct input.