Appointments to the boards of the semi-State bodies under the aegis of my Department since 18 October, 1991 are set out in a tabular statement which I propose to have circulated in the Official Report.
A copy of the Guidelines for State Bodies drawn up by the Department of Finance was issued by me in March last to the chairmen of all the State bodies under the aegis of my Department. The guidelines provide that the chairman should provide me with a separate comprehensive report, when submitting the annual report, confirming, inter alia, implementation of the code of conduct in the body concerned.
As regards the issue of public access to declaration of interest information the guidelines make it clear that State companies which are plcs are subject to the disclosure requirements of the Companies Acts in the normal way and also confirm that State companies established by statute only should voluntarily conform to the requirements of the Companies Acts until their legislation can be changed.
While the guidelines require a much wider disclosure of interest by directors than required under the Companies Acts no compelling case has as yet been made for making this additional information public.
