Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As acknowledged by the Minister of State, the reply contains no explanation for the failure to fill the vacancies. The question I must ask - one could be forgiven for thinking the worst - is why the Minister has not filled these vacancies, which amounted to 64 last December? Is it the case that the Minister is planning to abolish these boards? That is not an unreasonable question to ask in the context of such failure to act. If that is the case, surely then the Minister should, as requested earlier by Deputy Ó Cuív in his contribution, tell us so.

I ask the Minister of State to note that in terms of the new methodology of access the Minister, in failing to act, is making a nonsense of the system. Will the Minister of State agree that the Minister's inactivity and failure to act in filling vacancies on the board, despite the declared public interest in terms of the applications made, makes a mockery of the process? I would argue that the more open procedures need to be strengthened and that the Minister should be required to appoint a set proportion of people who apply in this way provided they are suitably qualified. This would be an improvement on the current inactive system.

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