Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

The Bill provides that the chief executive officer, CEO, shall be appointed by the authority with the consent of the Minister. I do not understand the assertion that a ministerial appointment is somehow bypassing the parliamentary process. A Minister's role is at the heart of the parliamentary process.

This is a standard provision regarding the appointment of a CEO of a non-commercial State body and I do not support giving this executive power to the Oireachtas. It is important that CEOs are accountable to the Oireachtas and they must appear before Oireachtas committees. This is covered in sections 17 and 18. The subsection that is proposed to be deleted provides for the Minister to designate a person to be appointed a first chief executive of the authority. This will ensure the chief executive is in place to head the authority from the day of its establishment. A CEO-designate who was a CEO of the Irish Universities Quality Board, IUQB, was recruited in October 2010 and he currently acts as CEO of the NQAI, HETAC, FETAC and the IUQB. He is a very busy individual. The CEO-designate is overseeing administrative preparations for the establishment of the authority and the Minister intends that he will serve as its first CEO. The CEO appointments thereafter will be made by the authority with the consent of the Minister.