Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There should be some sense of understanding by those who were approached by former Ministers in the final two or three days before the Government changed that they would not accept their appointments if they had any sense of call it what you want. I do not want to go down the road of involving the Government in legal technicalities in removing people from State boards, which is not worthwhile. If the Government was still involved in six months' time in legal wrangles in removing person X from board Y, the Deputy would be very unappreciative of the efforts we had tried to make in the spending of public money. I have set out - I have spoken to the Tánaiste and all Ministers about this - that persons to be appointed as chairpersons of boards, taking into account the need to have a proper gender balance, should have credibility, competence and vision in what they will bring to an appointment. Expressions of interests will be invited on the websites of Departments in respect of a responsibility or a board under their aegis. On the recommendation of the Government, the person to be appointed as chairperson will appear before the appropriate Dáil committee to be set up shortly to present his or her credentials and what he or she will bring to the board in question. There will be a discussion of the policy initiatives he or she will bring to it. I must assume a person who will appear before a Dáil committee will be competent and have the credentials worthy of the appointment. I must assume also that somebody who does not measure up will run the risk of not being approved by the Government for the position.

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