THE INSTITUTE of Directors has strongly criticised the proposal to appoint members of the Irish diaspora to State boards, warning that aspects of the initiative are fundamentally flawed.
Since the idea was unveiled at last October’s Global Irish Economic Forum, executives from leading organisations, including the New York Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs, Walt Disney and Microsoft, have volunteered to serve pro bono on the boards of Irish State bodies.
However Maura Quinn, chief executive of the Institute of Directors, said the practical repercussions and unintended consequences of the initiative had not been considered.
First, the institute suggests that every State board should have in place a skills and competencies framework.
It believes that all candidates for a particular State board position should be assessed against the relevant framework, rather than appointed on the basis of being members of the diaspora, who have volunteered their services.
“Then you get into the practicalities of people who are thousands of miles away,” she said, arguing that the busy schedules of overseas executives may mean they could not travel regularly to attend board meetings in Ireland.
Even though many multinational companies conduct global business meetings via audio or tele-conferencing, the institute believes it is not possible to build up the necessary relationship with other board members without physically attending meetings.
“Anybody who is a director on a board will tell you that, no matter how sophisticated [the technology], nothing compares to being actually in the room,” Ms Quinn said.
Studies have shown there is a relatively small pool of people who regularly crop up on the boards of Irish enterprises, but the institute does not accept that seeking fresh overseas talent with experience of business in foreign markets is necessary, or even advisable.
“There are lots of very good people here who are either currently involved or who would be happy to serve on State boards but may not have been asked,” she added. “We need to be more rigorous in identifying the skills that we need and ensuring proper succession planning.”
Ms Quinn said Ireland needed to be conscious of the “optics” of courting overseas executives, as it tacitly implied a lack of suitably qualified people in Ireland.
“If we are going to restore international trust in Ireland, we should be demonstrating that we have trust in ourselves.”
Since the initiative was announced by the Silicon Valley-based Irish Technology Leadership Group last October, 14 leading executives have offered their services on a voluntary basis.
In January it emerged that the Government was writing to current members of State boards to advise them that they had an option to waive their fees.
Ms Quinn said this suggestion devalued and demeaned the role of a director of a State board. She added that the institute was not suggesting that members of the diaspora did not have a role to play in relation to State bodies, but their role should lie in an advisory, rather than formal, capacity.
