Vol. 417 No. 2
90 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Energy if he has satisfied himself with the codes of ethics and practice governing the boards and employees of the commercial semi-State agencies, other than the ESB, under his Department's supervision.
The body of legislation governing the activities of the commercial State companies under the aegis of my Department defines the respective responsibilities of the Minister and the board appointed to run the company. Monitoring of these companies under my aegis is carried out in accordance with the supervisory functions assigned to the Minister under the relevant statute and semi-State companies are required to comply in full with those legislative functions.
I refer the Deputy to the third paragraph of my reply to similar questions in October last and I have no reason to change the views I expressed at that time with regard to conflicts of interest at board level. I have, however, in recent months, reviewed this issue and have satisfied myself that the codes of ethics and practice governing the boards and employees are adequate.
My colleague, the Minister for Finance, has recently carried out a review, the conclusions and recommendations of which have just recently been submitted to Government. The intention is to prepare and set in place appropriate guidelines for State bodies based on their findings. These guidelines will of their nature be non-statutory but they will complement statutory requirements in this area.
