Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point is that those associated with the internal mechanics of IMMA then said that if a person is nominated for the Seanad, he must stand down from the board. I have accepted that in a general way as Head of Government and through fixing the internal mechanics of Fine Gael Party business, which is not a matter for here. Yesterday, the Government made a decision to have a new framework, starting from 1 November, for all public appointments to be publicly advertised and externally validated, whereby every Minister will set out the conditions and criteria that will apply for each board under his or her Department's remit. Therefore, we will not have the system that applied since the foundation of the State. In the meantime, any board appointments that must be made between now and November will be announced by the relevant Minister so everybody will know that vacancies exist on certain boards. It is a case of accepting that this system is flawed in general and that we need to reform it. We have made the Government decision and it will be implemented from 1 November on www.stateboard.ieso every member of the public, be he in Gorey, Wexford or otherwise, who wishes to do public service on a board can check the relevant details. People will know the boards, vacancies, criteria, skills and required conditions and they will be verified by the Public Appointments Service. Names sent to a Minister will already be authenticated as the names of people of quality fit to serve on a board. I hope that puts an end to what occurred during Deputy Martin's time and everybody else's time-----

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