Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a technical amendment, of which I gave advance notice on Second Stage. Section 4 of this Bill, by repealing section 7(1) of the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act, would bring the appointment of the Clerk of the Dáil within the scope of that Act. That Act deals with normal appointments of senior civil servants, which is done on the basis of merit. I believe the appointments we are discussing today should be made on the same basis as TLAC, which uses a shortlist of approved candidates.