The Treasury Minister, Allan Bell, received a major setback in Tynwald when members voted out his choices of membership for the Insurance and Pensions Authority and 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 Island in the next year.

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

Criticisms of the proposed membership included having one person on two different boards, and why the 'CVs' were only presented the day before the sitting for MHKs and MLCs to examine. It was also claimed they contained insufficient detail. Mr Bell was also asked how often the IPA and the FSC met and how much members were paid. It was also suggested that some of the candidates were too close to the finance industry.

After seeing his choices for both bodies rejected, Mr Bell observed that Tynwald might not realise that such line-ups, prepared to take on such onerous work, were hard to find.

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