asked the Minister for Health the reasons for rejecting the nomination made by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to the National Health Council.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nominations to National Health Council.
4.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is not a body which was asked to nominate a person to be a member of the National Health Council. As the Minister has explained to the Congress he wished to choose a Trade Union representative to act on the Council. This choice, under the statute, was entirely a matter for him but he was prepared to consider the selection of a representative from a panel of two persons, willing to act, submitted by the Congress. The Congress have up to the present not submitted such a panel and it is for this reason that no appointment of a representative of the trade union movement has yet been made.
Am I to take it that the Minister for Health does not regard the Irish Congress of Trade Unions as the most representative body of trade unionists in the country and, therefore, entitled to have their own nominee on the Council?
The Deputy did not ask that question.
Might I ask the Minister why he thinks the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is not the body which should nominate the trade union member on this particular council?
I have not said that I think anything.