Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The public wants open and transparent government. It wants the old-style politics of sorting out people you know to be finished with. The Minister has seen the public anger at the stroke that Fine Gael pulled in the summer with Katherine Zappone. They do not like it. It should be a thing of the past. We are not calling into question people's qualifications. The Minister might want to talk about something different but he pulled a political stroke. He talked about the legislation. We tabled an amendment to that legislation, stating that the appointments would be through an open, transparent process. It was rejected by the Minister because, he said, he has to abide by the guidelines of the Government, which is the public appointments process. Section 8 of those guidelines applies to all boards, commercial and non-commercial. Will the Minister tell me and the public why he decided to ignore those guidelines and to appoint his special adviser and a Green Party candidate to a position on a State board without a transparent, open and fair process? That has pulled them into this discussion. They may be the best people for that job but there was no process. The Minister decided to evade the guidelines which have been laid down since 2014.

Why does the Minister believe he was correct to not have an open, transparent and fair process with regard to these public appointments? Why does he believe that this council did not come under that?

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