Opposition politicians accused the Minister for Finance of "living in the past" yesterday when he dismissed calls for a gender quota for the new Central Bank and Financial Services Authority.

Insisting members of the organisation's governing board and expert panels should be chosen on the basis of their qualifications and knowledge rather than gender, Mr McCreevy said such a quota would be "overly restrictive".

He rejected claims by Labour finance spokeswoman Ms Joan Burton that appointments made by him to State boards showed he was "living in the last century".

The Minister said Ms Burton's suggestion that he had an outmoded view of women's role in business was unsubstantiated.

"She seems to know things about me that I don't know myself," he said.

In fact, he had made history as the first Minister of Finance to appoint a woman to the board of the Central Bank, said Mr McCreevy.

The exchange arose when Ms Burton tabled an amendment to the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority Bill 2003, to provide that men and women each comprise at least 40 per cent of the new body's board and expert panels.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Mr Richard Bruton supported the amendment, saying that such a quota could encourage the Department of Finance to reappraise its method of identifying potential State board members.

The motion was tabled at a sitting of the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service.

The amendment was defeated by seven to four.