Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply. By way of clarification, I have not been given any new appointment in the past few minutes I am merely here to assist my colleague who had to go to vote in a different room.

Perhaps the Minister will inform the House of what percentage of appointments to the type of jobs outlined by him have in the past two years come from outside of the public service. The Minister stated that there has been a disappointing lack of management skills from some of the applicants outside the public sector. I find that difficult to believe in the current environment when there are many people out of work who have significant management skills. Perhaps the Minister will assure the House he will ensure that when we are filling high level posts through a process of competition and selection that it will be a meritocracy and that people from the private sector will have as good a chance of securing those posts as have people coming from within the public sector.

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