Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government made a decision this morning, in respect of a memo brought forward by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to deal with the changing of the model and structure by which ministerial appointments will be made. This has been agreed and approved by the Government. All of the positions on boards will be advertised openly on the State's portal, StateBoards.ie, which is operated by the Public Appointments Service, PAS. This means that every Minister will, in respect of the boards under the aegis of the Department, be required to set out the criteria, the conditions and the skills necessary for service on any of those boards. It is expected that every Department will advertise its vacancies and those criteria on the StateBoards.ieservice.

While the appointments to the board will remain exclusively the responsibility of the Minister, the relevant statutory conditions will have been assessed elsewhere. For instance, where a number of non-remunerated vacancies might exist on a board, a Minister will receive a list of appropriately approved candidates with qualifications from the Public Appointments Service for consideration.

In the case of boards under the aegis of NewERA, we have ESB, Ervia, Bord na Móna, Coillte, EirGrid and Irish Water. Bord Gáis and Irish Water become Ervia. These are specialist commercial entities which require a specialist set of skills, perhaps accountancy, legal expertise, communications or data skills. These will be assessed, in consultation with NewERA, to verify what is being sought and the vacancies on these boards will be ring-fenced to the NewERA system.

The Minister of Finance has responsibility for a number of boards concerned with the Central Bank and a process of validation is required for those appointments.

The result of this will be that from 1 November this year, an entirely new regime applies. All of the public appointments advertised on StateBoards.iewill be vetted and validated in respect of the conditions set out for each of the boards under each Department and the Ministers will be supplied with a list of named, qualified, credible persons. This process will apply from 1 November.

I do not propose to take up the suggestion made by the Deputy.

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