Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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408. To ask the Minister for Defence the number of appointments made to State boards under his Department's remit since March 2011; the number of positions that have been advertised; the number of applications to the boards; the number of appointments to the board that were drawn from the applications; the current number of vacancies on each board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28973/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The State Boards under the aegis of the Department of Defence when the Government took office were the Civil Defence Board, the Army Pensions Board and the Board of Coiste an Asgard. The Civil Defence Board was established in 2003. I appointed an interim Board as a temporary measure from 2011 and in this context none of the positions were advertised. The Civil Defence Board was identified in the Public Service Reform Plan as a body to be abolished and legislation was passed by the Oireachtas in December 2012 for the dissolution of the Board. Its functions have now transferred back to the Department of Defence.

Membership of the interim Board appointed in 2011 is set out in the following table:

The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act, 1927. The Act specifies that the Board shall consist of a chairman and two ordinary members. The two ordinary members must be qualified medical practitioners of whom one must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps. The chairman and the non military ordinary member are appointed by the Minister for Defence with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The Army Medical Corps ordinary member is appointed by the Minister for Defence on the recommendation of the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces.

The position of Army Medical Corps ordinary member became vacant due to retirement in 2011, and I have since appointed Commandant Adam Lagun to the Board on the recommendation of the Chief of Staff. As the Army Pensions Act 1927 specifies that one of the ordinary members must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps, this position was not publicly advertised. Details of Commandant Lagun’s appointment to the Army Pensions Board were published in the Iris Oifigiúl on 13 January 2012.

The current non military ordinary member of the Army Pensions Board, a civilian doctor, will retire at the end of June 2013. Expressions of interest in the position of civilian doctor to the Army Pensions Board have been invited by way of advertisement on the Department’s website and the Public Appointments Service website. Closing date for receipt of applications was 10 June 2013.

In the context of settling the Estimates for the Department of Defence for 2010, the Government decided that the national sail training scheme operated by Coiste an Asgard would be discontinued as recommended in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure. No appointments have been made to the Board of Coiste an Asgard since that decision was taken.