Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, this is to be agreed upon and worked through, but at the moment the intention is that there would be 30 members in total, with one chair, 19 other specified members according to the allocation I outlined, and then the ten others would be any ten others. What is in the legislation is that we would try to have a gender balance and that we would have a diversity of views and interests represented but it does not specify any further and I do not think it should. Obviously, we would like to see a 50:50 split between men and women on the committees. The legislation specifies that there should be a gender balance but in terms of the ten remaining members, it is not specific to them either. There might be 20 women allocated already and a committee might decide to put ten men in the remaining ten places that are open to any type of membership. In terms of voting rights and based on the three pilots, these are committees that will work by consensus. People will work with each other and I cannot imagine there will be much need for votes but obviously, if that is the case, everybody's membership will be equal.