Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe transparency is a vital element of good governance in all publicly funded organisations. In this regard, the Deputy will be aware of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies. This code of practice requires that, in the interests of transparency and good governance, State bodies should publish in their annual reports details of fees paid to each of their directors, the expenses paid to the board broken down by category and the salary of the chief executive officer. While the code of practice may be somewhat burdensome for small not-for-profit organisations, the principles of good governance and transparency are the same.

The salaries of the directors of the national cultural institutions, the director of the Arts Council and the CEO of the Irish Film Board are already a matter of public record, as those positions were publicly advertised and details have been furnished to Oireachtas committees in the recent past. Furthermore, I understand that the Arts Council has undertaken a trawl of CEO and director remuneration in the organisations it funds and, in keeping with the arm's length statutory principle enshrined in the Arts Act, it is a matter for the council to determine if and how to disseminate the results of that exercise. I will examine further the issue of publication of the salaries of CEOs and directors in receipt of grants directly from my Department.

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