Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I am not even sure what the term "in consultation" means. Is this in consultation with the members of the forum, who have yet to be decided upon and whose names will be put on the website? The chair of the IAA who is the regulatory authority will consult on who should be the chair of the forum before the forum commences, and that it would be rubber stamped on the day. This is probably what the Minister of State has just summed up. This is not best practice for any organisation with anything I have ever been involved with, whether it was politics whether it is politics or sport or in the community. When an organisation comes together and puts a committee together for the purposes of achieving a body of work, the chair is elected by the committee and is a member of the committee. That is standard practice. What the Minister of State has just described is not standard practice, and it should not be acceptable to either the CEO of the IAA - even though we do not have one at the moment - or to the Legislature. It certainly is not acceptable to me if we are proposing to stitch up the process for who we are going to put in the chair before the meeting or the forum is even convened. I do not believe that is a good idea at all.