Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would be eager to launch it internally if possible because a sizeable amount of work has gone into it. I hope this will happen before the end of the year. Maybe I can come before the committee in January to highlight some of the good work that is under way. It is understandable, particularly after the week we have had, that we all hear about the difficulties. I would welcome an opportunity to highlight the significant amount of work of great value that is going on as we seek to continue to modernise what we do with our Civil Service. I am dealing today with Vote 12, which relates to civil servants only. I have seen no evidence to suggest that any particular cohort of civil servants in any part of the Civil Service is any different in this regard.

If the Deputy is asking about an area across all of Government that would be important to me in terms of how we account for it and plan for it better, I would mention teachers in that context. In recent days, I have had to go to the Cabinet in quicker than anticipated circumstances to seek agreement to make additional provision for superannuation and pension payments for our teachers.

I have been struck by how the variance in respect of the number of teachers that are looking to retire and how we account for this is different from what I want to see in future. Although the matter is not covered by this committee, I am keen to indicate the point. It is something the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, and I will have to work on for next year. We need to see how we can plan for it better. We do not want to be in an adverse position. If a teacher voluntarily decides to retire, then clearly that teacher has a legal commitment and an expectation that we will be in a position to meet his or her expectations. I am keen to see how we can plan and account for this better in the coming years than we do at present.

The first question I was asked related to trends. I will read out the details but I might circulate them in tabular format to the secretariat in order that the details can be shared in a better way with the committee. I will set out the trends. In 2015, we advertised 304 vacancies on State boards. For that year, we received 4,699 applications. Of those 4,699 applications some 916 were submitted to the Minister for consideration and of those in turn 206 led to appointments. The figures are: 304 advertised, 4,699 applications received, 916 submitted to the Minister and 206 appointed.

I will share the figures for 2016 as well but the 2017 figures are not yet complete. In 2016, the equivalent figures were: 2,598 applications received, 639 submitted to the Minister and 173 appointed. The total number of vacancies advertised for that year was 163. Those are the figures for 2015 and 2016. I have figures for 2017 as well and I will share them with the committee, but the figures are not for the full year so I am not in a position to draw conclusions.

I was asked about the challenges, what is working well and what I think is not working well. There has been a dramatic improvement in the diversity of applications. The diversity of individuals who are being put before Ministers is significantly better than in previous years. When I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, the work that had to go into identifying a diverse group of candidates to put on boards was significant and took a considerable amount of time. Now, we have an organisation that will generate these applications. It can find new ways for us to talk to new people about State board vacancies. That represents a major improvement.

Something else has changed since then. There is definitely a growing awareness among people who are looking to apply for these roles regarding their responsibility as well as the potential challenges and pitfalls in doing that work. The profile of the roles has increased, as has the reputational benefits and consequences of such work going well for individuals or otherwise. I attended an event recently for the Institute of Directors in Ireland. I am doing another for the Institute of Public Administration before Christmas. My role is to reinforce to people the obligations they have if they go on boards. While it would not be fair to say yet that there is hesitancy in people applying for positions, it is fair to say that there is greater awareness of the responsibilities involved in being on these boards. That is a good thing but it is something that we need to keep an eye on.