Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To continue, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government made 177 appointments yet the number of vacancies advertised was nil and the number of public applicants selected was nil. I do not know what the then Minister, Mr. Hogan, was doing but he clearly did not believe in any of the rhetoric from before the election or any of the principles that both parties announced would be the basis for making public appointments. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources made 108 appointments since March 2011 and the number of vacancies advertised was nil, although 17 public applicants were selected. Out of 120 appointments made by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 28 were public appointments. Therefore, while different Ministries had different outcomes, we are looking at the most at one out of every five appointments across all Ministries being of public applicants.

Huge lip service is paid to all the talk about public advertising. The question is how valuable is this Cabinet sub-committee on public service reform, given all this was going on over the past three and a half years under its watchful gaze? The Minister has said that all future vacancies will be advertised on the State boards portal and that it "will be processed by way of a transparent assessment designed and implemented by the independent Public Appointments Service (PAS) to support the relevant Minister". Does this mean the Minister will still end up making the appointments?

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