Treasury Minister Allan Bell received a major setback when Tynwald voted out his choice of membership for the Insurance and Pensions Authority, and he was forced to withdraw his nominations for the Financial Supervision Commission.

It came out of the blue and will have embarrassed the department and the government, especially as the International Monetary Fund is due to run the rule over the Isle of Man in the next year or so.

Put forward for IPA Chairman was the former Chief Minister and Treasury member Donald Gelling, CBE.

Criticisms of the names submitted for consideration included the fact one member would have served on two boards. Mr Bell was asked why the CVs were only presented the day before and it was claimed they contained insufficient detail. Other questions included how often the authority met and how much members were paid. It was also suggested that some of the candidates were too close to the Industry.

After seeing his choices for the IPA rejected Mr Bell (pictured) observed that members might not realise such a line-up, prepared to take on 'this onerous responsibility', was hard to find.

However, he agreed to come back to the next Tynwald with fresh proposals.