Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

The proposals in the Bill include the establishment of a public appointments unit in the Office of the Commission for Public Service Appointments. This would be responsible for monitoring, approving and carrying out appointment procedures to public bodies. Section 8 of Deputy Boyle's Bill includes a proposal to establish a new joint Oireachtas committee on public appointments. Among other duties, it would decide which public bodies and special appointments would be covered by the new procedures.

The Bill purports to include all executive bodies, advisory bodies and taskforces within its remit. In excess of the 500 to 600 bodies and agencies would fall to be considered by the Oireachtas committee for the purposes of deciding which should come within the remit of the Bill, a considerable task by any reckoning.

In addition to this, section 10(1) of the Bill states the joint Oireachtas committee "shall carry out a review of all procedures in place for the appointment of chairpersons and board members of existing public bodies and establish a listing of those appointments which should henceforth come under the new procedures set out under this Act within one year". In my view the proposals would impose a disproportionate administrative task on any Oireachtas committee.

In addition the joint Oireachtas committee is left in the dark about the criteria to be used to select the bodies to come within the remit of the Act. This is despite the fact the public sector comprises organisations which are both commercial and non-commercial in character, in other words bodies which do and do not derive the bulk of their revenue from trading and commercial activities.

The procedure set out in section 6 of Deputy Boyle's Bill for appointment to public bodies would involve the establishment of a public appointments unit in the Office of the Commission for Public Service Appointments which would be responsible for monitoring, approving and carrying out appointment procedures to public bodies. Under section 11(1) the public appointments unit would be required to draw up a code of practice to govern the appointments to public bodies.

The principles applying to the code are set out in section 11(2). Subsection (f) states the principle that all public appointments would be advertised. The lack of proportionality of such a provision illustrates the lack of a commonsense approach being taken in this Bill. Not only would recruitment be by open competition under section 13(1) of the Deputy's Bill, but the appointments would then be subject to ratification by the Oireachtas joint committee. This appears to be an additional layer of unnecessary delay imposed on an already unwieldy and lengthy process which lacks the proportionality already mentioned.

Sections 17 and 18 of the proposed Bill provide that the chairpersons would be answerable to the Oireachtas joint committee and may be dismissed by them upon recommendation of the relevant Minister. In my view it is not appropriate to deal with the dismissal of a chairman or board member in the context of this Bill. The dismissal of board members is a matter for another context and must take into account fair procedures and natural justice. The inclusion of provisions on dismissal in the manner outlined suggest a lack of understanding of the public service ethos on which we rely to fill positions on boards of public bodies.

I reiterate the Government is committed to strong and effective corporate governance of our public bodies and has put in place a code of practice for the governance of State bodies. The code is kept under review in consultation with all stakeholders. In my view, the proposals from Deputy Boyle will make the job of improving corporate governance in our public bodies more difficult to achieve by deterring rather than attracting candidates of the calibre needed.

I am satisfied the accountability of bodies to Ministers and the House through the committee system is satisfactory. As I stated, the proposed Bill is cumbersome and would not improve the system. I am satisfied that current arrangements for appointments to various State bodies and groups are workable, practicable and help recruit people from whom the public service benefits.

See this speech in context