Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The debate is about the use of the public appointments process. I would like to also remind the Labour Party that, on page 42 of its 2011 manifesto, it stated its first step would be to: "End political cronyism by opening up positions on state boards to all qualified candidates, and require appointments to be scrutinised by the Dáil." Under the manifesto heading, "Ending Political Cronyism", it stated:

Labour will end the system whereby appointments to state boards are used as a form of political patronage and for rewarding insiders. In future, appointment to boards must be based on a demonstrable capacity to do the job. Labour intends to start this process immediately... Labour will publicly advertise all vacancies, and invite applications from the public.

Here we are, five years down the road, and it is only now bringing in legislation to establish the outside appointments commission, and it actually makes appointments before that legislation comes through.

In paragraph 9.1.4 of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's published guidelines on appointing people to State boards, there is a sneaky clause hidden in the middle of the nine-page document allowing exemptions to any of these rules if the Minister can identify a person who was evidently and objectively highly qualified and capable of effectively discharging the role of chair of the State board, and who has not otherwise applied through the www.stateboards.ie process. I and the public would like to know how a Minister, the Tánaiste in this case, or even a party leader, identifies or demonstrates that an individual is evidently and objectively highly qualified. I do not remember the Tánaiste handing out CVs to people, asking them whether they can verify the qualifications for the job, so how has it been identified that David Begg, or indeed Ita Mangan, who was also appointed by the Tánaiste to the Citizens Information Board outside normal procedures-----

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