Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions and Deputy Ó Ríordáin for tabling the amendment and raising this point. He referred to the organisations and individuals who have worked in this space for many decades. At every step of the way in the development of the zero tolerance strategy, but also this agency, I have tried to make sure their views, voices, concerns, experiences and overall ambition for the agency are taken on board. We have been able to achieve that.

I understand the ambition of the amendment is to ensure the head of the agency has a role in setting out who is working in the agency, the skills that are needed and the requirements overall. It is important to stress that, as I have stated previously, right across the justice sector there are examples of where the structure I am proposing in the Bill is already working and operating well. There are a variety of statutory and non-statutory agencies, including the Parole Board, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons, the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, the Probation Service, Forensic Science Ireland and the Office of the State Pathologist. There are also specialist State services outside the sector, such as the Workplace Relations Commission and Met Éireann, for example. In all those organisations there are long-standing and well-established consultative arrangements that already apply as a matter of course where my Department provides staff to agencies under this aegis. Each agency is supported by designated HR business partners. There is a recruitment partner from my Department and this allows for that relationship to be built between my Department and the specific agencies. It, in turn, helps to ensure staff are assigned and have the right skills and requirements, but also the heads of the various agencies have an opportunity to play a direct and substantial role when it comes to recruitment and selecting key staff, such as by applying selection criteria and job specifications, but also by participating on the interview boards. This is happening. It is not new or just in one agency; it has been happening across the board for several years and they have been working effectively and well.

In terms of anything further that would assist in this regard, on an administrative basis the management of specific recruitment campaigns has on several occasions been delegated or designated to the heads of the various agencies. This is done under the aegis of my Department. We will be happy to engage with the new CEO. I am pleased we are now whittling down the list of names and starting to go through the inverview process and things are progressing. The CEO could explore the possibility where specific recruitment competitions would be delegated to them under order by the Minister. There are a number of ways in which we can make it even more clear that the CEO will have responsibility and a role in the overall administration and deployment of staff within the agency.

I do not believe the amendment is necessary. The structures we have in place work well and allow the CEO to be very much involved in this. In recent weeks, I have spoken to several people who consider this to be an important amendment but my view is that what we have achieves what it is people want to see here, namely, a CEO with true power who will not be dictated to by my Department, me as Minister or anybody else who may be Minister in future. This structure is working well in various agencies and that shows it will achieve what we want it to achieve.

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