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

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 12, line 2, after “person” to insert “through the Public Appointments Service”.

These four amendments speak to the same issue. They all relate to appointments by the Minister. In the first instance, it is the person under section 9 who would be appointed by the Minister to carry out periodic inspections, reviews, audits, etc. It relates to the appointments of the chair of the board, the chairperson of the appeals committee and the ordinary members of the appeals committee.

We have had this discussion probably every time we have had legislation. My strong view is the legislation should require the use of the Public Appointments Service, PAS.

To the credit of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, every time he has made an appointment, he has made it through the Public Appointments Service. The issue is not that this Minister has an issue with it. The problem is he has colleagues in the Government who have not done that and have chosen people outside the Public Appointments Service.

There are two reasons it is important to stipulate it in the legislation. The first is that is what should be done. The second is that the people who are ultimately appointed will be protected, from a public perception point of view, if they have gone through the more rigorous process of PAS rather than being a direct ministerial appointee.

I can guess the Minister's response that this is standard language, there is a protocol and Ministers use the Public Appointments Service. Of course, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, does but, very recently, one of his colleagues did not and that is why I am still of the view the standard formula in legislation should change and should specify the Public Appointments Service. I see no reason not to do this given that is what Government is meant to do anyway. On that basis, I press all four amendments.