Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are three vacancies on the board of the National Museum of Ireland, two of which are for ordinary members of the board and one of which is for the staff nomination to the board. Section 19(1) of the National Cultural Institutions Act 1997 provides that "the Board of the Museum shall consist of a chairperson and not less than 13 or more than 15 ordinary members who shall be appointed to be members of the Board of the Museum by the Minister". Under the procedures put in place to appoint members of State boards, the process of filling two of the current vacancies on the board of the museum will be run by the Public Appointments Service. An assessment panel will be convened to consider and assess the expressions of interest received. A shortlist of suitable candidates will then be prepared to be sent forward for my consideration. Officials in the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht are working with the National Museum of Ireland and the Public Appointments Service to prepare the appropriate call for expressions of interest to serve on the board. It is expected that this will be finalised shortly and will then be advertised on www.stateboards.ie.

The process for appointing the staff member to the board is set out in section 19(6) of the 1997 Act, which provides that the person in question "shall be selected by the Minister from a panel of not less than 4 persons (of whom not less than 2 shall be women and not less than 2 shall be men) [and whose names shall] be submitted to him or her by the members of staff" of the museum. There was an insufficient number of staff nominations from the museum following the initial call for nominations. The Department has written to the museum to ask for additional nominations, following which I will make a staff appointment to the board in accordance with section 19(6) of the 1997 Act. The final form was sent for ministerial approval in recent days so that the vacancies can be advertised by the Public Appointments Service. There was a particular focus on the skill sets to be included on the form. As I have said, there are two vacancies for ordinary members of the board and there is one vacancy for the staff nomination to the board.

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