Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1: To ask the Taoiseach if he will consider allowing joint Oireachtas committees play a greater role in the selection of candidates to State boards other than chair persons. [10466/11]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 2: To ask the Taoiseach if he will allow appointees to State boards other than chairpersons, to appear before Oireachtas committees to assess their suitability. [10467/11]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

The Government has no plans to provide for appointees to State boards, other than chairpersons, to appear before Oireachtas committees to assess their suitability. The appearance of chairpersons designate before committees to discuss their views on the role of the State body concerned and their approach to the issues arising will provide an appropriate framework for Oireachtas oversight in the appointments process, given the responsibility of the relevant Minister, or the Government as appropriate, for the appointment of members of boards. Enhanced accountability to the Oireachtas by State bodies in respect of their performance will be put in place both through enhanced provision for parliamentary questions and through a renewed system of committee oversight in line with the programme for Government.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Does the Taoiseach agree that this is a significant reversal from previous positions he adopted on this issue? It is now very clear that the Government will appoint chairpersons and that a person will only resign if he or she makes a fool of himself or herself before the designated committee. If the Taoiseach believes the system of appointing persons to State boards is wrong, why is he not changing it? What we are getting is the appearance of change rather than substance. Before entering Government, the Taoiseach was committed to the establishment of a public appointments service which would handle the appointments process and give Ministers a short list informing them who was qualified and who was not. That has now been dropped by the Taoiseach. Will the Taoiseach consider the example set by the former Minister, Mr. Eamon Ryan, who under the Broadcasting Act 2009 gave the power to nominate individuals to the boards of RTE, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and TG4? Would that not really represent substantial change if that was the mainstream approach across appointments to State agencies as opposed to the position the Government is now taking where it is only the chairperson who has to appear before a committee and barring an appalling performance by the chairperson, nothing will happen and the appointment decision of the Minister will be rubber-stamped by the committee on which the Government parties already have a substantial majority?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I regard what the Government is doing here as a major advancement. I can point to a number of performances that certainly were less than adequate on the basis of what happened previously where people were appointed on the basis of friendship as distinct from ability or talent. On many occasions I have made the point that what we are about here is changing the system and I am not sure where the former Minister, Mr. Eamon Ryan, is at the moment, but certainly the position adopted by the Government now is very much removed from that which applied for very many years here. As the Deputy is aware what we have put in place is that people will respond to public notices about the requirements and the range of competencies involved in the appointment to the chairmanship of any State board or agency. Where casual vacancies arise, the spectrum and pool of talent will be very much broadened now because people will respond to public notices on the availability of places on boards or agencies and will be considered in that context.

The Deputy sat on the front bench on the Government side when I asked the former Taoiseach whether it was on the basis of ability or friendship that many of the appointments were made and he said it was on the basis of friendship. What we are about here is talent and ability. The changes in the system of openness through parliamentary questions and the committee system will lead to oversight here. It is a very major advancement from where we were. We want to see the best men and women, who are willing to take on these positions of importance, take them up and play their part in the development of the country. We want to see that talent given its best opportunity to express itself.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am not responsible for the pre-election promises the Taoiseach made. He should allow himself to be judged by the commitments he made. He can comment all he likes on previous governments and previous Ministers. He was also a Minister and he appointed in accordance with tradition, friendship, Fine Gael trustees and so on like that. Does the Taoiseach not agree that the system the Government is putting before us does not represent any major advance at all? We are just talking about chairpersons and no other member of a State agency is required to appear before a committee or will need to present in any shape or form. Ministers are already suggesting to people to apply. The word on the street is that people think they are in line for preferment on to a State board. There is a bit of a mirage going on here. Does the Taoiseach not agree that this is about the appearance of change rather than the substance of change? Why will he not consider broadening the system that the former Minister, Mr. Eamon Ryan, introduced? I say that irrespective of what political affiliation Mr. Eamon Ryan had. He initiated a significant breakthrough in appointments to State agencies-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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A question, please.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----when he gave authority to the committee to nominate people. Does the Taoiseach not agree that the Government has rowed back from its pre-election commitment to allow a public appointments service to screen, if one likes, potential appointees to boards and to make those lists available to Ministers? That has all been dropped now. Why has the Taoiseach reversed that commitment he made in advance of the general election?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy speaks of mirages and illusions. I remember asking questions from the seat he now occupies only a few weeks ago as to whether representatives of the IMF were in town. No, we did not hear anything about that.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach should have asked the Minister, Deputy Varadkar.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy would be happy to get Mr. Brian Cowen to do it.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There were mirages and illusions: these people were not in town at all; it was so completely untrue.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I believe the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, might be meeting them now.

Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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The Central Bank at the time-----

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Give Leo a ring.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach should answer the question.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy never asked in his 14 years as a Minister.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The fact of the matter is that we have a programme for Government that commits itself to allowing for the chairpersons designate of State boards and agencies to be brought before committees to give their views on their potential and on how they envisage those bodies or agencies developing. Where casual vacancies occur in any of the State boards, information is to be made available, by public notice, for those with an interest in being considered for appointment. One can take it that, in so far as the Government is concerned, people of competence and ability will be considered for nomination. However, in so far as the chairpersons designate are concerned, there is a commitment in the programme for Government and we are honouring it. It is already in situ.

The measure does not go as far as former Minister Eamon Ryan wanted. He is not present any more but that is not the reason. This is a major advancement on the position that applied for very many years. When my party was last in Government, in the 1990s, the system was different. It is very different now and will be so. Those men and women who are appointed as chairpersons of State agencies and boards will have to have the experience, competence and capacity to measure up to the difficult tasks they will face.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Chun an fhírinne a rá, níl aon chumhacht ag na coistí maidir leis an obair seo. Tá ceist amháin agam. An seasfaidh an Taoiseach leis an ngeallúint a thug sé i rith an toghcháin? The question is quite simple. The Taoiseach promised transparency and to change the way this place would be run. Committees have no power such that they can have any real say in the appointments of people to State bodies. Given the poverty in society, the revelations about carers, about which those of us who work in constituencies will know, and the plight of the unemployed, we should bear in mind that appointees earn huge sums of money. There is no independent or even semi-independent way of scrutinising their appointments. The proposal is not a major advancement. Will the Taoiseach not admit that in the House?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Ní raibh sé i gceist ar chor ar bith go mbeadh cumhacht iomlán ag na coistí maidir leis na daoine a cheapfar mar baill de na boird seo. De réir an Teachta, faigheann cuid de príomh-oifigigh na rannóg Stáit tuarastail an-árd. Tá na tuarastail ó thaobh na chathaoirligh de foilsithe agus tá siad fíor-soiléir. Tá na chathaoirligh freagrach don Rialtas. Tá cead ag baill an choiste ceisteanna a chur orthu siúd atá toilteanach, nó a bhfuil fonn orthu bheith mar chathaoirligh ar rannóg nó bord Stáit ar bith. Is mór an athrú é sin atá curtha i gcrích ag an Rialtas seo. Tá sé fíor-soiléir. Tá cead ag gach Teachta freastal ar chostí Oireachtais agus ceisteanna a chur ar duine ar bith gur mhian leis nó léi bheith ina chathaoirligh ar bord nó rannóg. Is mór an athrú é sin, ó thaobh soiléireacht agus freagracht de, i gcomparáid leis an méid a bhí in áit le blianta anuas.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Is féidir a lán ceisteanna a chur, ach gan cumhacht ní féidir aon rud eile a dhéanamh.