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

Maybe the Ceann Comhairle does not want the temperatures to rise too much either. I can appreciate that.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government about reform of the system of appointment to State boards and to place it on a statutory basis. Unfortunately, there are no commitments on how to deal with Ministers who refuse to make appointments to State boards, even when the potential appointees have gone through the new system of appointments that was introduced by the previous Government in 2014.

Indeed, in the past couple of weeks there have been advertisements on television urging people to make applications through the Commission for Public Service Appointments and stating that the commission wants people's talents and ability. I understand that approximately 4,200 applications have gone through the Public Appointments Service. It is a centralised applications system through which applicants are short-listed. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, apparently has great difficulty following through with this system. The programme for Government contains a commitment to strengthen the system by putting it on a statutory footing by the end of 2016. What progress has been made on that commitment, given this is the last week of the session? Will that legislation be published?

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