Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 29:

In page 7, to delete lines 33 to 41, and in page 8, to delete lines 1 to 3.

Amendment No. 29 deletes the proposed provision of an entirely discretionary process whereby the Minister can set up any system to identify prospective nominees from which he then chooses an associated provision on the making of regulations. This is one of the parts of the Bill to which we are most fundamentally opposed. It is a recipe for undermining the independence of the board. We do not want the Minister to have the proposed amount of discretion. He should stipulate what it is he wants in legislation and we could then justify it. I will read the relevant section of the Bill into the record because I want to highlight how vague it is. The provision states, "The Minister shall establish a suitable, independent, objective, and transparent procedure (which may include the establishment of a committee), in accordance with which recommendations may be made to the Minister in relation to the appointment of ordinary members of the Board." This is vague in our view. We ask the Minister to say what he wants and what he wants to do, and let us scrutinise that, but we are fundamentally opposed to the drafting of that section because of its vagueness. The Minister should stipulate what he wants and present that to the Oireachtas.