40. The First Schedule to the Act of 1976 is amended—

(a) by substituting for Article 2 (inserted by section 6 of the Act of 1987) the following:

“2. The Board shall consist of a chairman and such number of other members, not being more than 8, as the majority-shareholding Minister may determine.

2A. A person may not be appointed or act as a member of the Board if he or she is a director or an officer of a company or other body corporate which engages, within or outside the State, in—

(a) the supply of natural gas,

(b) the shipping of natural gas,

(c) the production of natural gas,

(d) the supply of electricity, or

(e) the generation of electricity.”,

(b) by substituting for Article 4 the following:

“4. (1) The majority-shareholding Minister shall, with the approval of the Government, from time to time as occasion requires appoint a member of the Board to be chairman thereof.

(2) The chairman of the Board shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns the office of chairman or ceases to be chairman under paragraph (4) of this Article, hold office until the expiration of his period of office as a member of the Board.

(3) The chairman of the Board may at any time resign his office as chairman by letter sent to the majority-shareholding Minister, and the resignation shall, unless it is previously withdrawn in writing, take effect at the commencement of the meeting of the Board held next after the Board has been informed by the majority-shareholding Minister of the resignation.

(4) Where the chairman of the Board ceases during his term of office as chairman to be a member of the Board, he shall also then cease to be chairman of the Board.”,

(c) by substituting for Article 5 the following:

“5. Each member of the Board shall be appointed by the majority-shareholding Minister with the approval of the Government and the majority-shareholding Minister when making the appointment shall fix such member’s term of office which shall not exceed five years and, subject to the foregoing and to Articles 7 and 9 (2) of this Schedule, such member shall hold office on such terms and conditions as the majority-shareholding Minister, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, determines.”,

(d) by substituting for Article 6 the following:

“6. A member of the Board shall be paid by the Board out of moneys at its disposal such remuneration (if any) and allowances for expenses as the majority-shareholding Minister, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, determines.”,

(e) by substituting for Article 7 the following:

“7. The majority-shareholding Minister may, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, remove from office any member of the Board who has become incapable through ill-health of effectively performing his duties, or who has committed stated misbehaviour, or whose removal appears to the majority-shareholding Minister to be necessary for the effective performance by the Board of its functions.”,

(f) in Articles 8, 11 and 13, by substituting “majority-shareholding Minister” for “Minister” in each place where it occurs, and

(g) by substituting for Article 25 the following:

“25. (1) The majority-shareholding Minister may, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, make a scheme for the granting of pensions, gratuities or other allowances to or in respect of the chairman and other members of the Board, being members whose duties as such are wholetime, ceasing to hold office, other than persons in respect of whom an award under the Superannuation Acts 1834 to 1963 may be made.

(2) A scheme under this Article may provide that the termination of the appointment of the chairman or of a member of the Board during that person’s term of office shall not preclude the award to him under the scheme of a pension, gratuity or other allowance.

(3) The majority-shareholding Minister may, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, amend a scheme made by him under this Article.

(4) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any pension, gratuity or allowance payable in pursuance of a scheme under this Article, such dispute shall be submitted to the majority-shareholding Minister who shall, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, decide on the matter and this decision shall be final.

(5) A scheme made under this Article shall be carried out by the Board in accordance with its terms.

(6) Every scheme made by the majority-shareholding Minister under this Article shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if either House, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the scheme is laid before it, passes a resolution annulling the scheme, the scheme shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(7) Where an established civil servant is definitively transferred to the Board as a member thereof, the superannuation benefits to be granted to him shall, if the majority-shareholding Minister, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, in his discretion so directs, be calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Superannuation Acts 1834 to 1963 as if, during the period of his service as a wholetime member of the Board subsequent to his transfer, he had been an established civil servant and had been paid during that period out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas within the meaning of section 17 of the Superannuation Act 1859.”.