Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer Senator Mullen to Senator Norris's earlier contribution. When the authority was established in 1971, the legislation effectively gave the Minister the power to make the appointments to the authority at the time. In fact there is no provision with specific regard to student representation. Part of the reason I know this is I was education officer with the USI in the year we achieved it. By the way, the Minister who made the first student appointment to the HEA was Micheál Martin. The tradition has been kept up ever since but that is done by discretion rather than by legislation, so adding this into the legislation is certainly welcome.

Senator McDowell is slightly wrong in saying the Minister can pick almost anybody.Section 16(2) states that the individual shall have to have "sufficient experience and expertise relating to" a number of categories, which are laid out quite-----