It was right that a Minister removing someone from a State board for extraordinary reasons should have to state the reasons for doing so, the Tanaiste said. Ms Mary Harney agreed to amend the Industrial Development (Enterprise Ireland) Bill to ensure that reasons would have to be given for the removal of a board member.
Thanking her for accepting his party's amendment, Mr Joe Costello (Lab) said she had shown herself to be a reasonable Minister.
Earlier, Mr Paul Coghlan (FG) described the amendment as excellent, saying he thought we had moved on in our democracy from the practice of something occurring at the whim of the Minister, although he acknowledged this was not the intention in this case. "We need to be pro-active in ending that culture."
Ms Harney was happy to accept the amendment, and while she had been advised that it was unnecessary, senators had made a case for it. A recent court judgment had held that the then Minister had acted wrongly in removing certain members from the CIE board. "It is right that if a Minister removes someone from a board for extraordinary reasons, he or she should have to state those reasons.
"In stating the reasons one would have to be precise because it could open a Pandora's Box of litigation, but a person's name is blackened if they are removed from a board. If a Minister does not like someone for political reasons, that is not a good enough reason for removing that person from the board of a State company."