Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I largely agree with much of what the Deputy said. I am supportive of the principle underpinning the amendment, which is to minimise the periods in which members would act up. However, unforeseen circumstances can arise, which suddenly cause a vacancy. The vacancies must be temporarily filled. Ideally, we would all love a situation where adequate notice and a lead-in time are given to carry out a recruitment campaign. However, sicknesses, even sudden death, or other unforeseen circumstances can occur. The six-month maximum period is a standard provision for authorising an acting member and it is a realistic timeframe for the appointment process for such a senior post.

Deputies will be aware that section 944F sets out the rules for the appointment of members to the authority. Recruitment selection is by way of open competition run by the Public Appointment Service, PAS. Members are subsequently appointed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on foot of the recommendation made by the PAS. The six-month period takes into account the practical matters of advertising the vacant position, giving applicants time to submit their application, shortlisting and interviews, and any notice period that the successful candidate will have to serve. It is not unusual in such a senior position that a preferred candidate may have to give up to three months’ notice to transfer from his or her current employer. Given that notice period, along with the period to run a successful competition through the PAS, which takes time, we felt at six months was a fair timeframe to put in place.

The Deputy can be assured that my objective is that any temporary authorisations are of the shortest timeframe, pending an open competition. However, we cannot accept the amendment to reduce the timeframe to eight weeks, purely on practical grounds. Running a successful competition through the PAS in itself would take probably more than eight weeks. The successful candidate, having been offered the position, may have to give up to three months’ notice to his or her current employer.

Perhaps the initial candidate might not even accept the position and it will be necessary to offer it to somebody else. We believe that six months is the outer limit. That is not what we want to achieve. We do not want somebody to be acting up for six months. We want to provide a realistic timeframe for how long it might take. Obviously, the intention would be to keep the acting up requirement as short as possible.

The Deputy asked a specific question about the powers that would be associated with an acting up position. He or she would retain the full powers. The person would be acting up and would have the powers that would be there for somebody who is appointed on a permanent basis.