Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is quite unfortunate the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, is not here to respond to this matter and that the Minister of State had to be pulled back up from Limerick or where ever he was to deal with it. I understand the Minister is heading out of the country.

I must declare I was a former employee of Fáilte Ireland. This matter relates to the process in which the agency is engaging in filling the post of chief executive, an issue of concern to me. Before his appointment as Minister, Deputy Shane Ross would wax lyrical from the opposition benches and in the Sunday Independentabout quangos, State board appointments and other such issues. After six months in office, he has still refused to meet Fáilte Ireland even once. The agency is not engaging in using the Public Appointments Service, PAS, system to fill the chief executive post. Instead, it is using a company called Amrop. Transparency is not there.

Why is the senior Minister not using the PAS system to give transparency to this process? In reply to a parliamentary question on this, the Minister stated Fáilte Ireland was not obliged to do so. If one looks at the PAS website, however, many other State agencies do so. In fact, another agency under the Minister's remit is currently using it to fill vacancies.

One of the biggest marketing jobs in Ireland - and given Brexit - is not filled by the Minister in a way which I would have expected him to do so, given his track record. Does the Minister of State feel this is appropriate? Will the current process using a private company be stalled? Will the position be readvertised? Why has it taken so long? If this is the best process, why has no one been appointed? Is there an issue of which we need to be made aware?

It is incredible the Department was unable, unwilling or did not feel it necessary to have a representative on the interview board for the chief executive of one of the most important agencies under its remit. I know the Secretary General of the Department quite well. He is a capable man who worked with me when I was there. I am sure the assistant secretary, who I do not know, is also competent and capable. If a Department is going to jump outside the PAS system, will the Minister of State agree the Department should have a role in a recruitment process to ensure it is transparent and that the best person, the person with energy and vision, which are the two main requirements for the role, gets the job?

There is a concern that because the senior Minister refuses to use the PAS, there is some reason Fáilte Ireland is going around the way it is. Why has the appointment not been made? Amrop claims to be one of the best executive search companies on this planet, but after six months it is incapable of filling the job. What is the issue?

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