Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dooley for his statement - much of which I agree with - on what is a very important issue for Members of both Houses of the Oireachtas. As the Deputy has rightly said, during the passage of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Bill 2009, reference was made to the Government's commitment to ensuring, in co-operation with the commission, that the administrative structure of the Oireachtas does not become out of step with Civil Service norms in terms of adapting flexibly to the needs and demands of modern management systems.

As Deputy Dooley correctly noted, during the passage of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012, my colleague the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Alex White, advised Members that it was intended to bring forward legislation in 2013 to ensure the modernisation of the senior management structures of the Houses of the Oireachtas service. The existing arrangements for the filling of officer of the House posts in the Houses of the Oireachtas service, such as that of Clerk of the Dáil, means, as the Deputy has rightly pointed out, that an external candidate may only be appointed where no internal candidate is deemed suitable. This is completely out of kilter with the top level appointments committee, TLAC, system which incorporates nomination by boards comprising a majority of members from the private sector with specific skills in management and human resources. This format provides considerable opportunities for new blood to be introduced into organisations throughout the public service, and this has been mirrored by the introduction by the Government of a senior public service mobility programme throughout the public service. This has already been availed of in the Houses of the Oireachtas service at assistant secretary level.

I believe the objective in filling top posts of the Houses of the Oireachtas service should be to employ professionally organised and independent competitive selection mechanisms such as those that exist throughout the wider Civil Service to ensure the best possible person is selected from as wide a pool of talent as possible to lead the parliamentary service in future. In fact, changes to the current system have been foreshadowed by recent appointments to assistant secretary positions in the Houses of the Oireachtas service being made on the basis that the duties of the posts would subsume those of the Clerk Assistant of the Dáil and the Clerk of the Seanad once the incumbents have vacated their positions. It should be noted that the filling of two assistant secretary positions in the Houses of the Oireachtas service in 2006 and 2010, respectively, were as a result of TLAC open competitions. Each of these posts was sanctioned by the then Minister for Finance on the basis of achieving a modernising programme in the Houses of the Oireachtas service.

I am on record as being committed to ensuring, in co-operation with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, that the administrative structures of the Oireachtas do not become out of step with Civil Service norms in terms of adopting flexibly to the needs and demands of modern management practices. Legislation which would change the management structure at the Houses of the Oireachtas service and have the chief executive of the service selected from as wide a pool as possible in line with top level appointments in the Civil Service generally is being considered in my Department. I hope to have discussions soon with the Ceann Comhairle and the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, as appropriate, and I will be bringing in legislation to Government immediately thereafter.

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