Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I expected, the Minister of State has given exactly the same rote response as his counterparts gave when we discussed these matters in respect of earlier legislation. The difficulty is that, unless this is legally required under the Act rather than being advised in a voluntary code of practice to which the Government adheres, a Minister can make direct appointments, bypassing the public appointments process. In many instances, including during the term of this Government, Ministers have done just that. I used the recent appointments to the Climate Change Advisory Council as a case in point. I fully accept what the Minister of State has said with regard to the code of practice. In general, the Government does use the Public Appointments Service, but it does not always do so. There should be no circumstances in which a Minister, regardless of who he or she is, can bypass that process. This caused enormous controversy in previous governments. Ministers appointed people who were widely believed to be politically aligned with the general thinking of those Ministers to significant State boards despite the fact that the code of practice which the Minister of State has outlined was in place at that stage. I refer not only to the previous Government but the Government before that, when Fine Gael was in government with Labour.

I do not accept the argument that making the use of the public appointments process legally required creates complications. It is a simple amendment which would prevent a Minister from making a direct appointment. All of our parties agree that not only do we want to end cronyism, but that we want to end the perception of cronyism. The best way to do so is to make sure that no Minister can make an appointment outside of the public appointments process. I will be pressing the amendment.